Tabitha Timms

There’re certain moments you remember in music you remember clear as day, like that time Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day smashed his guitar at the iHeart Radio fest, or when Taylor Swift was interrupted by Kanye West on the VMA’s; Stuff like that. One of those memorable moments is the day Panic! At The Disco revived their exclamation point. Okay, maybe not as iconic but close… Right? As someone who has followed this band since quite honestly the beginning there’s certain moments in time that are embedded in the darkest crevasses of the mind, loggin’ on to a giant MacBook computer and loading the black screen to reveal the new era of Panic! At The Disco.

Somewhere between being a legitimate child in elementary school and going into high school, My Chemical Romance appeared on the scene. In the midst of being a player on a travel soccer team, standing and rolling around on a soccer ball while watching T.V. was a daily activity. On a particularly sunny day appeared one of the aesthetically sleek band, at a funeral with a woman in a coffin. Being the first time a concept like that had been brought to young eyes, it was hard to distinguish if it was impressive or disturbing, until good ole’ Helena got out of her death bed and started dancing, MCR made a new fan that bright afternoon.

Its 2008 and Panic! At The Disco has finally released their second album, the 5th grader that once fell in love with P!ATD couldn’t wait to have their new music hit their eardrums. Being in middle school now and cohousing good ole’ dad to pick the C.D up from Kmart, popping it into your small pink-flowered boom-box, while flipping through the C.D booklet, noticing that the once comforting exclamation point is removed after the word Panic, but that’s okay, they’re still the same burlesque loving, circus-esque Panic… Right? All fans were expecting A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out 2.0, although thinking about it now, it doesn’t really make too much sense to expect that from a band, but P!ATD (or PATD in this case) went so far away from their debut record it threw fans for a loop.

It’s easy to craft a specific music taste, spending years at a time falling in love with all kinds of different bands and knowing exactly what curls your toes and applies goose-bumps all over your skin. Being a bit of a music snob, it has always been difficult to trust another person’s opinion when it comes to hearing something new, especially when you’re 18 and a 20-something-year-old, who you already thought was the worst, tries convincing you that they found the best new band. It’s even more horrific when they’re right. Being shown the video for “Car Radio,” for the first time had that exact toe-curling, skin-chilling effect.

Sitting in the back of a car being a 5th grader as “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage,” hits the speakers via Sirus radio, stringing words together such as “come on just tap, tap, tap your toes to the beat” lead to the dreaded question: is this Fall Out Boy? Of course, it wasn’t and being a 5th grader the band was quite easy to forget about until the release of the “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” video. This video appears to be low-budget with expensive ideas, from eyes painted on eye-lids to pin-striped suits and men on stilts, the video really drove home the idea that this band was fresh and unique, complete with an iconic top-hat. The song itself was enough to draw a listener in but their aesthetic made the band memorable and will create nostalgia for years to come.