more than you ever wanted to read about the difference between Panic!βs two 2006 national headlining tours:
so Iβve been seeing stuff thatΒ seems to combine the summer 2006 tour with the Nothing Rhymes With Circus arena tour at the end of the year as though theyβreΒ the same thing aaaand that makes me kind of sad because they deserve some major individual appreciation.
they were for the same album but had totally different costumes, makeup, stage design, dancers, support bands, scripts, andβ¦ well they were just completely different productions. you get it.Β
the band did at least 8 tours for AFYCSO, but these were the two headlining national ones with the big production value.Β theyβre both iconic works of actual art so let me just break them down & we can get nostalgic about something weβll never even seeβ¦.
Their first national headlining tour (not an arena tour) was in June & July 2006 when Spencer was 18, Ryan & Brendon were 19, and Jon was 20.
The stage had the giant moon & windmill but was kind of just a plain black stage beyond the props & decorations. Spencer, Eric, and Bartram shared the same riser towards the back.Β The band filmed their show in Denver and then turned it into the Live in Denver dvd for the AFYCSO box setΒ that had the same β1920s Moulin Rougeβ theme as this tour.Β (x)Β
Panic! did a costume change halfway through each show so the main outfits for this summer were:
Jon also had a random blue shirt for the first half of some shows, but for the most part this summer followed a red/white/black theme with some GORGEOUS floral detail going on in some pieces. Brendon also had a black coat thatβs the greatest thing heβs ever worn (facts) to go with the white ruffly shirt but sometimes he skipped it indoors. Right after this tour the band went back to their simplified black/grey/white look (except Jon was still doing his own thing lol).Β Hereβs a more detailed look at the summer outfits.
The Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque was in the I Write Sins Not Tragedies video and then joined the summer tour. The band didnβt have enough material for a headlining spot with just the one album, so they padded their time on both tours with song covers & other performers.
βWe wanted our live show to be kind of like a Broadway play in a sense,β Urie explains of the addition of the old-timey strippers. βYou have music being played and performance going on or a little skit.β
β Brendon in a 2006 Buzznet interview
The Hush Sound opened for this whole tour. The Dresden Dolls opened for the second half, and OK Go opened for part of the first half (Lovedrug had to step in to replace them when OK Go was double booked).
Both of these elaborate tours were just in North America btw. I remember Australian & European fans complaining that the shows in their April & October international tours were pretty plain in comparison (except for the Brixton shows).
NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2006:
So during their 2006 fall European tour Ryan said their next national tour at the end of the year was βgoing to be our biggest tour weβve ever done. Weβre planning a lot of production on that tour. We have a drum riser thatβs gonna be like 8 feet tall and look like a carouselβ¦ and then we got like 6 performers coming outβ¦ Itβs just gonna be a big show and something we havenβt seen a band do.β (x)
The Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour was a Very Big Dealβ’ and is the one that Rolling Stone shadowed the guys during for their cover article. This was Panic!βs first headlining arena tour and went for most of November & early December. Brendon and Spencer were 19, Ryan was 20, and Jon was 21.
So this super theatrical tour is where we got several versions of the puppet makeup & incredible costumes styled by Anthony Franco:
βA Cirque du Soleil fanatic, Ross has seen three of their shows and says the costumes and sets on his bandβs Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour β a three-ring rock spectacle featuring contortionists and stilt-walkers β were inspired by the new Cirque Beatles production, Love.
β¦ βI was always more impressed by Vegas shows than by any rock band I saw,β Ross says. βJust the super over-the-top-ness of it all. I wanted to incorporate that into our concerts β to make it more than T-shirts-and-jeans.ββ
β from Ryanβs Blender interview in early 2007Β
The band brought in a few elements from other tours (like their light-up name, white piano, and Brendonβs choreography in Thereβs A Good Reason), but most stuff wasΒ completelyΒ different. The much bigger stage was a massive circus tent with Spencer, Eric, and Bartram up on 3 separate risers.
Robb Jibson was the bandβs art director & lighting designer (hereβs Zack talking to him in 2008).Β He based the concept for this tour off of the gothic circus theme that started in the IWSNT video.Β Atomic Design did the stage andΒ Tait Towers did the custom risers, which included a lion cage riser for Eric and a carousel riser for Spencer that was also a door the dancers could use (idk what to call Bartramβs riser but itβs cool too).Β
The songs on the AFYCSO album were split between a modern and old-fashioned feeling, which was mirrored in the cover artΒ with the split women. So then the band carried that idea into this tourβs stage design by having a Victorian audience opposite the modern audience.Β
Once the designers understood what the band wanted, they had Joanna Davis hand colored the Victorian audience and printed it in a large scale (x) The bandβs art director said that βin the world of flashy LEDs and constant changing scenic elements having a tangible set with real, physical set pieces gives this show a Broadway musical look instead of an awards show.β
βWe wantedΒ to be the band that had its own carnival,β says frontman Brendon Urieβ¦Β But what if Vince Neil were to accuse [Panic! at the Disco] of ripping off Motley Crueβs traveling-circus idea? βI could see why heβd be upset. We actually tried to get their circus tent, so I couldnβt really disagree with him.β
- Brendon Urie to Spin Magazine (published in Feb 2007)
There was a lot of other stuff the guys wanted to include but werenβt able to, like fire breathers, a tiger, trapeze artists, and Brendon being shot out of a cannon (x).Β This tour did include a drumline with the whole band, though!
The band was also joined by six performers who did a range of routinesβ¦
The tour got its share of negative reviews & angry feedback from parents of middle schoolers because a lot of songs had some pretty risquΓ© dance numbersβ¦Β
but hereβsΒ a really great livejournal entryΒ about the dancers from a girlΒ who went to 7 shows in this tour:
Hereβs one of my posters from this tourΒ βΒ Bloc Party was scheduled as a support band but had to cancel after a couple shows when their drummer collapsed a lung. So The Plain White Tβs opened a lot of shows and thenΒ Cobra Starship opened others towards the end.
Thereβs no full professional recording of this show available (even though the Fairfax show wasΒ recorded), but I went through over 600 videos of fan footage on youtube and then edited shots together to come as close as I could to what this show wouldβve looked like. THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE FANS WHO RECORDED THIS SHOW and took the time to share!!!!
and then hereβs a bit more info about Brendon & Ryanβs interactions during this tour.
