Tag: reload

Categories
New Zealand Show

Show #3: Nelson, New Zealand

Setlist
The Wave, The First Show, Ticket, Reload[1], Blended Together

[1]Debut

Review
This could have been a breakout show for Enthusiastic Panther if it weren’t for, well, every song except Ticket and Reload. The audience was left scratching their heads. “How could those two songs be so good when the rest of their set was absolute shite?”

Over time, Ticket and Reload emerge as two of the most popular songs of the entire band’s catalog. And the other ones? Bad news, they never stop being shite.

Concert rating: 50/100

Details
Date: 17th January, 2020
Concert id: 2020-01-17

Categories
New Zealand Show

Show #4: Christchurch, New Zealand

Setlist
Sure[1], Four Turtles[2], Duke’s Revenge[3], Ticket, Reload

[1, 2, 3] Debuts

Review
The Christchurch show was the best show played by the band to date, and it brought with it a lot of interesting data and lore.

First, the band debuted a full three songs, meaning more than half the show was brand new. Second, the band decided in Christchurch that because the new songs were received well, any show with new music would always begin with a new song. Third, Ticket and Reload brought the house down, which is where the band realised these two songs were their crowd favourites, and work best later in the set.

The next show was going to be played further south, in Dunedin. The band decided to put some of their new theories to the test.

Concert rating: 61/100

Details
Date: 19th January, 2020
Concert id: 2020-01-19

Categories
New Zealand Show

Show #5: Dunedin, New Zealand

Setlist
Reload, Blended Together, The First Show, Ticket, The Wave

Review
Dunedin taught the band an important lesson. Reload and Ticket are popular anywhere in the set, and … The Wave is just not a good song, and nothing can be done to save it.

The band was riding high on a great show and approaching an epic close when the bassist got a bit cocky. When he plucked out the first few notes for The Wave, the rest of the band groaned, but gamely soldiered on. They shouldn’t have.

It turns out a bad performance of a bad song doesn’t work very well as a closing song! Who knew?

Concert rating: 54/100

Details
Date: 20th January, 2020
Concert id: 2020-01-20

Categories
New Zealand Show

Show #8: Hamilton, New Zealand

Setlist
Waiting for Fred[1], Reload, Ticket, Four Turtles, Duke’s Revenge, Blue Orange

[1] Debut

Review
The band stormed into Hamilton hungry for a good show, and agreed on playing the “Big Three” to help them achieve that. Despite pleading from the drummer, who believed that their “always start with a new song” strategy was jinxing entire shows, the band started with Waiting for Fred.

It did not go well. But despite that mistake, the show ended up with the highest rating yet. And what do you do after a great show? If you’re this band, you get in a giant fight and break up.

Concert rating: 61/100

Details
Date: 26th January, 2020
Concert id: 2020-01-26

Categories
Show USA

Show #10: Honolulu, USA

Setlist
Duke’s Revenge, The Wave, Ticket, The First Show, Pixilxil, Four Turtles, Reload

Review
The band decided to play a trick on the drummer, and leads the whole show with Duke’s Revenge. Torn between putting on a good show and standing up for himself, he ends up playing along.

The Wave delights a small percentage of “Wavers” in the audience, but drags down the show. A decent showing, but not great.

Concert rating: 55/100

Details
Date: 22th April, 2020
Concert id: 2020-04-22

Categories
Show USA

Show #11: Los Angeles, USA

Setlist
Lilliput[1], Pixilixl, Blue Orange, Ticket, Reload, Sure

[1] Debut

Review
“We have a curse! We have to stop debuting songs at the front of the show!” the drummer yelled backstage.
“We don’t have a curse,” the singer said. “Lilliput is going to work, trust me.”

It did not work. To salvage the show, the band played The Big Three as a triad in the middle of the show. That works, and in fact the band registers their best show to date. Morale is running high after this show, but there continues to be a debate within the band about the “always start with a new song” strategy.

Concert rating: 64/100

Details
Date: 23th April, 2020
Concert id: 2020-04-23

Categories
Show USA

Show #13: Portland, USA

Setlist
Top, Ticket, Waiting for Fred, Pixilixl, Blue Orange, Reload, The First Show

Review
A better show than San Francisco, but a bit uneven. Blue Orange and Reload are standouts but The First Show is not a strong closer.

Concert rating: 63/100

Details:
Date: 25th April, 2020
Concert id: 2020-04-25

Categories
Show USA

Show #14: Seattle, USA

Setlist
Needle[1], Lilliput, Sure, Four Turtles, Reload, Blue Orange, Ticket

[1] Debut

Review
The curse of the debut song continued in the Emerald City. Needle was a new song inspired by the Pacific Northwest, and the band was excited to try it out. But halfway through its maiden performance, the crowd booed until the band stopped the song.

Lilliput didn’t fare much better, but Sure punched way above its weight to save the show, then the Big Three closed out the night on a high note.

This concert is emblematic of the kind of rut the band began to get into. New, adventurous songs weren’t being received well while older, more played out songs were getting huge responses. Increasingly the band began to resent those crowd pleasing songs but didn’t feel they had any choice.

Concert rating: 55/100

Details
Date: 26th April, 2020
Concert id: 2020-04-26

Categories
Canada Show

Show #17: Victoria, Canada

Setlist
Little Bones[1] , Midst, High School, Pixilxil, Sure, Ticket, Reload, Blue Orange

[1] Debut

Review

The band had supporting help for this show from The Plodes and Bad Hoo. All three bands ended up hanging out backstage where EP learned how to play Little Bones by The Tragically Hip. They figured it out well enough to debut the concert with it, or so they thought. It went ok, but not as well as they were hoping for.

The crowd was mostly there to see Bad Hoo, so the audience reaction was mostly muted. However, the energy changed drastically when the band decided to play The Big Three to close out the night. Reload came first, and was ok. But next came what fanthers have come to call “Victoria Ticket,” an almost-flawless performance that went down as the best song they had ever played.

In the end, Victoria ended up scoring as the third best show in EP’s entire concert chronology. But it was the performance of Ticket that became an instant classic, as buzz in Canada began to get louder. Afterwards, Bad Hoo invited Enthusiastic Panther to play with them in Calgary. EP agreed, and it was a good thing they did!

Show rating: 62/100

Details
Date: 30th April, 2020
Concert id: 2020-04-30

Categories
Canada Show

Show #18: Calgary, Canada

Setlist
What a Wonderful World[1], Blue Orange, Top, Patrick Swayze, Celsius, Ticket, Lilliput, Reload, Don’t Let the Air Out of My Tires

[1] Debut

Review
The best show EP had ever played, for a lot of reasons.

First off, every song over-performed. Most concerts have a blend of songs performed worse than their average (“red songs”) and songs performed better (“blue songs”). On this evening, every single song came up blue.

Then, Blue Orange scored 98/100, breaking the record set the night before and registering almost a perfect score. Then Ticket did almost as well with a 97/100 score. And if that weren’t enough, Reload’s 93/100 meant that 3 of the best 4 performances of all time were in a single concert.

Interestingly enough, Enthusiastic Panther didn’t even headline this show! This was actually a Bad Hoo show, with EP just doing their best to warm up the crowd. No one was more surprised about the great performance than Enthusiastic Panther themselves!

“We should always be an opening act,” the drummer joked. He might not have been joking.

Show rating: 72/100

Details
Date: 2nd May, 2020
Concert id: 2020-05-02