Panther Camp’s lead singer takes a leap of faith at Backbooth! | Live Review of Panther Camp + Teen Agers | August 28 2014

by Mitch Foster • September 9, 2014

Thursday night I watched the lead singer of Panther Camp climb the chain link fence in front of the sound board at Backbooth like he was Vega from Street Fighter. As he reached the second floor guardrail, he hung on for a moment by one arm, yelling into the mic. He continued up until he was perched upon the railing, squatted down, singing and looking out into the crowd. Ten, maybe twelve or fourteen feet up. Then, he fucking jumped.

Awesome and the Ass Kickers opened the show, delivering loud punk music behind their luchador masks. They were followed by Rushmore, an aggressive three piece punk rock act about a year old. Rising punk heros Teen Agers performed third who I caught open for I Am The Avalanche last month.

“This is the punkest set we’ve played” -Teen Agers.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve seen this band three or four times now. This time, I was able to catch their guitarist, Jordan Shroyer, filling his role in the band as “Jordan Shredder.” I even caught the act on the Shows I Go To instagram.

I suppose around this age – late twenties, early thirties – you begin to see a lot of new bands forming with All Star lineups. Panther Camp is no exception. With the face Norsekorea on bass, former My Hotel Year drummer behind the set, and the guitarist and lead singer from County Slashers, Panther Camp can fairly be classified as “All Star.” Here’s a shitty pic:

This was Panther Camp’s “Single Release Party” for Single Summer, a brand new, two song CD that came with a sweet koozie and a sticker (yes, I bought it). It also marked the beginning of a short Florida tour called the “Single Summer Tour.”

I often end up at shows and have no fucking clue what to expect. Having never listened to Panther Camp before, this was one of them. There was a line of lyrics in the very first song that got me right into them “Stand Up! And Show Up! And Shut Up!” I learned that song is called “No Regard” after I purchased the CD and my friend Ashley described it perfectly earlier this month.

Panther Camp lead vocalist, Jason Smith broke the “lead singers” mold last night. I noticed he had an extraordinarily long microphone cable when the band was setting up. Backbooth doesn’t have a large stage space so I found it strange that he’d need all that cable. To my surprise, he used it. All of it.

Jason was down in the crowd by the second song. He got up on the bar. On the side stage railing. On his knees. On the upstairs guardrail… Needless to say, he was on everything the entire evening. I caught him while he was standing on the bar (notice Jordan’s face in the corner):

I’ve never seen a lead singer dominate Backbooth the way Jason did last night. Panther Camp was a great surprise. I’m interested in seeing how they grow in the Orlando Music Scene. I believe we’ll be seeing a lot of them in the future.