Concert review: Weezer, Panic! at the Disco and Andrew McMahon

USANA Amphitheater was rocking last night as Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Panic! at the Disco and Weezer appeared in concert on July 26. It was my first time seeing all three of the bands in person and my group, consisting of three siblings and a friend, had an interesting experience, so I figured I'd blog about it. It's a first draft and is by no means the award-winning journalism that I'm sure your accustomed to me producing, but here are my rambling thoughts about each of the acts:

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

Andrew McMahon, formerly of Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, and his new band started promptly at 7:00 PM, as we were making our way into the venue. We made it to our seats about half-way through the set and were able to listen to the final few songs the band performed. I was previously only familiar with two of Andrew McMahon's songs ("Cecilia and the Satellite" and "High Dive"), so my expectations were set pretty low - hopeful, but low. With that said, they did about all I could possibly expect from an opening band - put on an enjoyable performance that got me interested enough to go home and look up the rest of their stuff. Andrew seemed to be having a good time (I had no idea where he was for like five minutes because, apparently, he was out in the crowd and not up on stage), singing his hottest songs, rattling off some inspirational mumbo jumbo about parachutes and ultimately jumping up and doing some good, old-fashioned stomping on his piano keys. I mean, if you're going to play the piano for a living, why not, right?

RATING: 7 out of 10

Panic! at the Disco

Unlike their predecessor last night, I am familiar with a bit of Panic! at the Disco's music. They've got some fun stuff from the past 10 years or so (12, to be a little more precise), so I was a little excited and anxious to hear what they'd do in concert. They kicked things off with "Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time" from the 2016 album "Death of a Bachelor," which I had listened to a time or two in the days leading up to the concert, transitioned to the 2013 song "Vegas Lights" and launched into one of my favorite songs of theirs, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa," and the show progressed from there. Panic! would go on to play songs including "Nine in the Afternoon," the profanity-laden "Crazy=Genius," "Miss Jackson," "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and (their closing number and most recent success) "Victorious." The highlight of their set was almost undoubtedly their cover of Queen's legendary mega-hit "Bohemian Rhapsody," which, I thought, was tremendous.

When I go to concerts, I try to give bands I'm not entirely familiar with the benefit of the doubt - I genuinely want to like them. This has worked out well for some bands (Guster, for instance) and unfavorably for others (Ben Folds Five, for instance, who followed Guster and was horrible). As much as I didn't want to say anything, I found lead singer Brendan Urie's otherworldly falsetto to be WAY out of tune for most of their set, especially in the opening three or four songs. (I've got video recordings to prove it.) The other problem I had was that -- now, I don't know if they just didn't realize that they were having an issue or whether they didn't properly do a sound check beforehand or whether it was just that I don't know the words to most of their songs -- but I couldn't understand a bloody thing the dude was singing. It all pretty much sounded like screaming and random wailing, for the most part. When Brendan talked to the audience, there wasn't much of an issue with clarity, but when the music kicked up, it almost all sounded like muffled, garbled garbage.

Music completely aside, I do have a bone to pick with Panic! at the Disco, and their aforementioned lead singer. As far as a front man goes, Brendan Urie is pretty much everything you want. The dude has got swag up the wazoo, is a heck of an on-stage dancer and has an incredible voice. But I knew we were in for it when he took a moment to pause from the music and explain that he was born in St. George, Utah, and raised by his parents in Las Vegas, where he said, "they thought it was a good idea to raise a Mormon kid." At first glance, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the guy has intentionally distanced himself from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he came straight out and said it, himself, to put all speculation to rest. He referred to Mormons as "very smart people" and said he has nothing against them, but had no issue taking slight jabs at the Church throughout the evening, at one point jokingly mocking the LDS repentance process by telling the audience that he wanted to confess a childhood sin like he would to a bishop. He prefaced his religious commentary by saying he didn't want to preach to us (because he got that for the first half of his life - a veiled reference to Mormon culture), but what he did for the remainder of the set was exactly that - he preached to us. Now, he wasn't preaching doctrine or trying to convert us to a different religion, but he bombarded the audience with constant suggestions that willy-nilly, premarital sex is what "we're supposed to" do here during mortality, which I didn't think was a great concept. Brendan also made a point to tell us that, since it's 2016, nobody has the right to tell us what to do - and if they try to, we should simply give them The Finger and say, "F--- you." Direct quote. How kind.

By far, the most humorous moment of the night was what Brendan referred to as "Hardcore Positive Thursday," which consisted of him screaming into the microphone for a minute and a half. (Listener discretion is advised if you decide to YouTube that, by the way.) It was an odd and fascinating metamorphosis from emo-punk rocker to scream-o monster. I'm sure he was trying to make some kind of profound statement or if he was just goofing around, but his surprising stream of F-words was shocking at first, but had us laughing the entire way home. What a fool. Honestly, what was he trying to prove? How "un-Mormon" he had become? It was all just very strange to me. Whatever makes you feel good, dude. I'm not going to judge him because what he chooses to say and do really have little-to-no lasting effect on my personal life, but I lot a lot of respect for the guy after his shenanigans last night. More than anything, I'm just disappointed in the guy.

Something that I believe many people don't understand about life in this P.C. society of ours is that you can disagree with people and not hate them. People leave the Church. I get it. But why do they have such a hard time leaving the Church alone? Sing your songs, do your thing, but leave the bitter-ex-Mormonism out of it, please.

And then there was the annoying Panic! fanbase, who could be easily identified out of the sold-out crowd by their tattered clothing, ridiculous haircuts and penchant for vaping. Stereotypically, they seemed to be the fanatically crazed type of millennial girls and emo-kids who go wild at the mere sight of a man taking his shirt off or discussing how his friend has been sober for two years (great news for the guy, but, like, why are we screaming at the top of our lungs for him? - he can't hear you!). Again, just kind of weird to me. Thankfully, a lot of the Panic! fans sitting around us left about 20 minutes into Weezer's set.

RATING: 4 out of 10

View the setlist here

Weezer

Weezer has been my favorite band for more than a decade, but I had never before seen them live in concert. Needless to say, when tickets went on pre-sale months ago, I bought mine immediately. My excitement for this show could not have been greater. I listened to every Weezer song in my iTunes library in the 24-hour period before the concert, so I was ready and raring to go.

Let me tell you this, Weezer could have stopped playing three songs in and still have blown away Panic! at the Disco. From the get-go, Rivers and the crew blasted "California Kids" from their new "White Album," then moved to "Hash Pipe" and their classic, "My Name is Jonas." From then on, it was an hour and a half of the band's greatest hits, including "(If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To," "Perfect Situation," "Beverly Hills" and "Island in the Sun." They also were sure to include new songs like "King of the World" and "Thank God for Girls," to which I am proud to say I rapped along the entire time. Mid-way through the set, they broke out a medley of five songs that would have been nice to hear in their entirety, but I was happy to hear, nevertheless. The high point of the set, in my opinion, had to have been "Say It Ain't So," which practically broke into a gigantic audience sing-along. (Check my Instagram for a quick video. Watching it makes me a little emotional. I'm a nerd.) Also, it's worth mentioning that the gigantic, head-banging Troll dolls on the screen during "Say It Ain't So" were the greatest things ever. Weezer closed the night with an encore of "El Scorcho" and "Buddy Holly" to crown things off.

Front man Rivers Cuomo was everything I imagined (#mancrush), sounding identical to his recordings and embodying the rock dreams of nerds around the world. The man is like a modern-day Elton John, with some hilarious wardrobe changes - a sombrero, a Hawaiian lei and a cap/crown combo. During "Perfect Situation," Rivers made his way through the audience, down the aisle probably 15 feet away from where we were sitting (I slightly panicked and failed to get a picture due to nervousness), and later randomly encouraged the audience to join him in singing a partial cover of fun.'s "We Are Young."

Rivers is a legend. That's all I can say.

Admittedly, I'm a bit biased when it comes to my thoughts about Weezer. I was more prepared for this concert than any other that I've ever attended and was stoked out of my mind the entire time, but I genuinely feel that they have a lot of singable songs that made the show fun for everyone in attendance. However, as biased as I was, I can definitely say that Weezer shattered the ridiculously high expectations that I set for them. With most bands, I'd be good seeing them once in my life - and, to some extent, that's how I felt Weezer would be, as well - but, after the show they put on last night, I would love to go back and see them again the next time they're in town. My only regret or critique was that it was a little too short; there were a couple songs that I would have liked to hear that they didn't have time to play, so the next time I see them, I'd prefer for them to come alone, without another major band to share the stage with. I want more Weezer!

Overall, I loved the show and know that everyone that I went with did, too. They put on a heck of a performance and it was all certainly worth my hard-earned money.

RATING: 9.5 out of 10

View the setlist here

Were you at the show? If so, what did you think? How would you rate the bands? Let us know in the comments below. Have a good one - and remember, "if it's too loud, turn it down."