Alright friends, I have seen many wonderful posts about Tinn’s mom, but I can’t sleep so I’m writing one of my own. I have many thoughts and feelings about her because I ADORE her.

There are so many things to talk about regarding her relationship with Tinn and her journey on how to accept and best support him BUT I’m not gonna talk about that. I’m barely going to mention Tinn. I need to talk about this because I haven’t seen it mentioned yet: she is damn good at her job. I love that we had a misdirect at the beginning of the show from Gun’s perspective that she would be an antagonist that’s out to get the music club. Then we shifted to Tinn’s POV and we got to see that she isn’t out to get anyone. She’s a high school principal just trying to make sure her school keeps on running. We don’t know the exact details of what scuffle the music club got into the previous year. But as the principal, it makes sense that she is making tough choices. Clubs that cause problems that result in damages that need to be paid during a time where she has to tighten the budget? It makes sense that she would consider disbanding the music club. Tinn and Gun’s worldview is smaller because they are students at the high school. They can’t see the whole picture that Tinn’s mother sees and has to see in order to keep the school running. Does she make things more difficult for the music club? Absolutely she does, but not because she wants to. It’s literally her job. She needs to make sure the rest of the school can still function.

She also never stops the music club from trying. In fact, I’d say she encourages it, even though they might not realize it. She signs off on letting them compete but only once they’ve improved their grades. It feels unfair and impossible to the band but it is completely reasonable. “Keep up your schoolwork and your academics and you’ll be allowed to participate in this extracurricular activity with the school’s blessing.” That was a rule at my high school. It isn’t her job to just give students what they want willy nilly. It’s her job to make sure the students are set up for success in the future. Once their grades improve, she signs off on it. She might be skeptical and it might not be her thing, but never once does she stop a student from exploring their own interests.

Then we get to the homophobic teacher. She listens to his story while he demands punishment. She asks Tinn if what he said is correct. And she’s asking him because he’s involved, because he’s her son, but also because he’s the school president. Tinn has proven he is responsible and she takes that into consideration. She looks at the situation as a whole. She wants to make sure she hears both sides of the story. So many principals of people in authority will take the teacher’s side and not once ask for the student’s side of the story. But she is fair and she sees her students as people who deserve to be heard. And that entire scene I wasn’t worried about Kajorn’s punishment because I knew she would be fair because she is good at her job. Kajorn needed to be disciplined for using violence, but not for standing up to the homophobic teacher. And she punished accordingly. Then she moved on to tell the teacher what she would do regarding his role in the situation. She was being pressured by the other teacher’s regarding Tinn’s sexuality but she remained professional the entire time and did her job to support her students. And at the prom, standing right next to two of the homophobic teachers, who I’m sure texted her, she loudly told the students to cheer for Tinn and Gun.

She is doing everything in her power to make that school a safe place for students even if that means she has to face backlash. She does that because it’s her job. It’s not her job to judge students. It’s not her job to make life more difficult for students. It is her job to make sure each and every student in that school has the best chance for success when they eventually leave.

CONCERT REVIEW: PANIC! AT THE DISCO W/ HAYLEY KIYOKO AND ARIZONA AT ROGERS ARENA - AUGUST 11TH, 2018

For a reverent hour and fifty minutes, Panic! at the Disco—now a project Brendon Urie claims as his own—was a powerhouse of entertainment, Urie serving as the ringleader who ran the show and put everything he had into it. He was the magic man with the golden mic during the Vancouver date of the Pray for the Wicked tour.

A R I Z O N A (a band hailing from New Jersey) opened up the night with a set full of danceable indie pop, many heads in the mostly filled-out floor section nodding along. Lead singer Zachary Charles kept a rapport with the audience behind the Canadian flag affixed to his mic stand, letting everyone know they were “A R I Z O N A the band, not the state.” Their heavy drums and beats were reminiscent of a synthier Bastille or a more upbeat Milky Chance. It was an enjoyable opening set, the spotlights from the stage and punchy ‘ohs’ in many of their songs giving them a foothold in the audience.

The energy that accompanied Hayley Kiyoko’s entrance could have been mistaken for that of a headliner, many in the audience leaping to their feet as soon as the lights went down. Kiyoko was sure to make her brand quickly known, announcing to the audience: “For those of you who don’t know me, there’s only one thing you need to know: I love girls.” In touch with the audience, Kiyoko often came to one side of the stage to connect with several pairs of girls, draped in bisexual and rainbow flags, who were voraciously dancing for the duration of the set. As a dancer she was in no need of backup, grooving to all of her own songs, while also proving herself to be a wicked drummer during a solo that reverberated through the crowd.

Through the arena, the crowd was a mixture of older fans who could remember the fervour when Panic! at the Disco burst onto the scene with the iconic “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” and younger fans who had been brought in by Urie’s later poppy works. However, all present cheered loudly when a countdown appeared onscreen.

Urie made himself into a human exclamation point for his entrance, popping up from the floor of the stage and going into “(Fuck A) Silver Lining” with the horn section onstage blazing. This type of theatricality made itself known throughout the entire set—Urie was in constant motion onstage. He leapt from one side of the triangle-shaped catwalk to the next, made his way through the crowd to a B-stage before playing a white baby grand suspended above the audience on his way back, did a back flip off an elevated drum-set after performing a solo, and hit high notes with pyrotechnics going strong behind him.

The theatricality and excellent use of the stage and arena space wasn’t a surprise, Urie having been a part of Kinky Boots on Broadway last year. He paid tribute to Cyndi Lauper, a composer for the musical, with a cover of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Another cover highlight was “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Urie not biting off more than he could chew with his rendition of the Queen classic that he performs because he’s jealous he didn’t write the song himself.

Throughout the show, Urie focused most on his more recent material; Panic! at the Disco has come far since their debut in 2005, Urie veering away from emo rock-pop toward anthemic, positive pop-rock. For those only familiar with Panic!’s old material, the new was danceable, hooks memorable and easy to sing along to after a couple of repetitions.

Urie, who recently identified as pansexual in an interview with PAPER magazine, decided that one pansexual flag wasn’t enough, draping both pan flags brought by front-row audience members around his neck during “Girls/Girls/Boys.” The song, originally about Urie’s first threesome, was adopted as a queer anthem by fans. The space in the arena was steadfastly queer-positive, compounded by hosting Hayley Kiyoko as an opener. For young fans, the importance of having an arena filled with thousands of people being a safe space for self-expression cannot be overstated, Panic! at the Disco on the same level as acts like Harry Styles when it comes to creating these spaces on a mass scale.

There wasn’t much said by Urie throughout the night, who leapt from song to song, taking brief respites with his back to the crowd to drink water. Not that he needed to, the crowd devoted and with him in every song, their reverence reaching new heights as a shirtless Urie started the encore with “Say Amen (Saturday Night),” on what was a Saturday night.

“I Write Sins Not Tragedies” was a clear highlight of the night as Urie opened up to thank the crowd for their support over the past fourteen years, before leading all into a fervour with the song that brought so many to Panic! at the Disco, and brought Brendon Urie and his world-class showmanship to the world.

Written by: Natalie Dee Panic! At The Disco photographed by: Timothy Nguyen