Panic

Somewhere between the RIOR cassette and the last 4 While I Bleed Slowly CDs all the good Bio metaphors were used up. This is a major drag for Panic and specifically me, the biography author, as I cannot compare their songs to shards of glass, car crashes, eulogies for soon to be dead emotions or anything else that cool. Ideally I’d call Panic an eight sided die with each side representing and equally potent and ominous consequence but there are five people in the band.

So in theory if you could imagine Azy, Damian, Gibby, Masek and Q and three other cool things maybe earth, water and fire, you’d have eight sides and you could roll against your friends in home room and play the game of Panic. Unfortunately the RPG dice thing isn’t going to really work but I can tell you that the city of Boston, Massachusetts where said band formed in 2001 is a deceptively small one. If you spend enough time there you will see scenes and humans cross pollinate. DJs, artists, trumpet players, organic market workers, webmasters and Hardcore kids all share the same air, brains and space. Occasionally when you get the right friend salad going, something like Panic happens. Essentially it’s natural selection as there are plenty of people in Boston but only those that click together congregate and create, the one thing Panic had in common was a love of straight forward Hardcore played from the heart. Pretty simple, they formed without pre tense or pro band aspirations, instead they were pissed off, psyched to have fun and when you live in stressful Boston you have plenty to yell about too.

Since recording their demo in 2001 Panic has gone through many members and permutations that have taken them around the US leaving a trail of good times, t-shirts, 7″ singles and rest stop stomach aches. At some point in 2002 Panic’s bones snapped and the band came to a halt. The under two minute blasts ceased, the well crafted Gibwardian lyrics no longer growled and everyone did other shit for a while. Leave it to Arnhem to dangle the carrot and viola in 2005 Panic was given the opportunity to cruise to Holland to play to those who didn’t have a chance to see them before the wheels came off.

Much like the Griswold Family, Panic found the fun rekindled on fine European soil and the results are more sweaty van rides , nicknames, and a handful of new songs that trump anything they’ve laid down before. That’s not a sales pitch either, I’m not secretly some dude in the band blowing smoke up my own ass or a label guy trying to unload the vinyl cluttering up my hallway, 2006 shows Panic at their finest. When your band members live in different cities and coasts the logical thing is to get back together, tour new places and write punchier, riffier and more dynamic songs, makes perfect sense.

Check Panic out now before they disappear again because it might take another four years and a potential show in Micronesia to make them realise they love doing this.

–Anthony Pappalardo