If you read our preview of tonight’s gig, you’ll know I compared Don’t Panic to a lot of ’90s and early 00s pop punk bands.
Upon further listening, I feel the need to throw Bayside in as one of their major and obvious influences… and I love Bayside. That makes tonight all the more exciting: Don’t Panic, Kevin from American Pie, and Who Saves The Hero? from Wales. It’s a modestly priced ticket in an awesome venue on a Friday night, so worth a punt even if you’re not familiar with the acts.
The merch stall is an interesting one. I wasn’t sure if Thomas Nicholas would be banking on his American Pie game, or if he’d rather let the music do the talking. We have t shirts with the slogan “Stiffler’s Mom has got it going on” and “American Pie Emo Camp” along with signed American Pie prints and Funko Pop figures. There’s a banner with shots of his biggest roles… I never knew he played a young Tony Danza… so there’s that. None of this is a criticism, I just wasn’t sure of what side of the line Thomas would fall on, and know I know. Maybe we’ll get some cool stories during his set.
Who Saves The Hero? comes on the stage to a sparse audience. They do have a pretty cool pre recorded intro, though. The performance, however is a lesson in the pitfalls of over production. There’s backing tracks – even for seemingly simple guitar lines that could be played live – and the live guitar that exists is being run through a digital sampler (as was the fashion at the time).
The issue with this is that since there’s no one stage sound (the band are using in-ear monitors so you don’t even benefit from the wedges) and for whatever reason, the tracks and guitars are being held hostage by the sound man… all I can hear is acoustic drums and a bit of vocals. There’s a suggestion of guitar but you’ve got to try to channel everything else out to hear it and that’s not really the point of a gig. The songs sound like they’d be alright as recordings. A little ropey live though.
Don’t Panic come on to a stage that suffers with an issue that I’ve seen before at Tuts. For some reason they have no interest in turning on the front stage lights – so we’re watching a bunch of backlit silhouettes. That’s a shame since I’m sure I saw at least one decent jump and some good dancing on stage, but I can’t be sure. They certainly sound a lot better than the opener. The vocals fall a bit flat from time to time, but that’s live music. It’s been sung with some amount of gusto.
I’m not hearing as much Bayside as I did in the recordings, which is a bit of a relief. The last thing I want to see is a poor imitation – Don’t Panic are certainly their own band tonight. It’s punky, has the same early ’00s vibe I got from my initial listens and it’s fun to listen to. There’s pretty funny banter between songs too. When the band are taking the big family photos with the fans, the crowd obliged with the traditional “Here we…here we… here we fucking go” chant without prompting. Then we get a fun cover of ‘Jessie’s Girl’.
Could I see them on a bigger stage? Not yet. The night is a million miles from a sell out – but for having only 1-2k Spotify listeners, those who are here are a decent percentage. Do I want to see them come back? Yeah, I’d like that.
While Don’t Panic are playing, Thomas Nicholas is at the merch stall doing fan selfies and has even brought his own little LED light to catch his best side. The fans are loving it though.
Thomas comes on and it’s all American Pie all of the time – beginning with the speech he makes in the first movie about “our flaccid penises going unused” or something along those lines. A little talking before ‘Stiffler’s Mom’ as seen on the t shirts is played (do I have to explain it’s a parody of Stacey’s Mom?) and then a cover of Blink 182’s All The Small Things… because they were in the movie too. His band includes the bassist from Don’t Panic and the drummer from Who Saves The Hero but they seem tight enough rather than a last minute cobbling together. After every song, Thomas wants us to give some noise to someone… the acts, the sound guy, his pal from Dunfermline… everyone gets a cheer!
His original stuff is very listenable. A bit of Lit inspired rock, some Americana, indie pop… it’s nice. The music is really serving as interludes to the chat, though. Did you know Stiffler’s mom was 38 years old in the first movie? They’re close to green lighting a fifth movie, and speaking of Lit… Thomas is friends with their drummer. That last bit is explained just before a cover of ‘My Own Worst Enemy’.
This show should have been put on as “An Evening with Thomas Nicholas”. The bands could have still played as everyone who loved American Pie is still super into pop punk, but there could have been meet and greets and Q and As… Bam Magera is doing that very thing in Glasgow soon! Putting it on as that would have sold a lot more tickets and not a lot would have had to have changed in terms of the show. If we’re going to put on an American Pie themed night… let’s own it. I am still madly in love with Alyson Hannigan, though – flute or no flute.
Photos by Catching Light Photography