This week, Jennifer reconnects with one of her favorites and discovers a new Ohio band.
Last Tuesday, Panic! at the Disco played their first U.S. show in almost two years. It was an amazing evening, but before I tell you about it, I’d like to introduce the opening band, Cincinnati, OH natives Walk the Moon:
I am not quite sure what the facepaint has to do with anything, but: they have hot funk grooves powered by two drummers – one whom is also the lead singer – and in addition said lead singer is in possession of a killer disco falsetto. They immediately engaged and kept the attention of a restless crowd, and the reason I took so few pictures of them was because I was busy dancing. I’d also totally go and see them at their own show in the future. You can listen to them on bandcamp and also they will be at SXSW. If you’re going down there check them out, you will not be disappointed.
Spencer Smith and Brendon Urie
But now, onwards to the main event, with some brief background: In July 2009, Panic! at the Disco split in half. Ryan Ross (guitars, lyrics) and Jon Walker (bass) became The Young Veins, while Brendon Urie (vocals, guitar, piano) and Spencer Smith (drums) continued as Panic! at the Disco. Following a short tour with Fall Out Boy and Blink-182 in the summer of 2009, Panic! have been largely incommunicado while working on their next record.
Ian Crawford
On Tuesday night, Urie and Smith were joined by traveling members Ian Crawford (Stamps, The Cab) on guitar and Dallon Weekes (The Brobecks) on bass, and from what I saw, the time away has had a rejuvenating effect. The dance party started as soon as they played the first notes of The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage – their early song titles are kind of ridiculous – but ridiculous titles or not, the old songs sounded new and the new songs fit in with them seamlessly. And by “old” songs I mean Fever era tunes. A few tracks from the more recent Pretty. Odd. were in the set, but they were beefed up to fit with Panic!’s current modern pop sound, which MTV’s James Montgomery has dubbed “baroquetronica.” Whatever you want to call it, Panic! at the Disco’s sonic Summer of Love has pretty clearly come to an end.
L to R: Ian Crawford, Spencer Smith, Brendon Urie, Dallon Weekes
Vices & Virtues is out on March 29, and, seriously, Happy (Belated) Birthday to ME. I am SO EXCITED for this record, y’all, I can’t even tell you. I’m predicting it will be delicious and they’ll have us dancing all summer. I’m especially keen to hear the studio of version of Let’s Kill Tonight, which as best I could tell was a “you do what you want, we’re going to party” song with a headbanging beat and complicated string section accents.
Dallon Weekes
Panic! has a tradition of playing one cover per tour: in 2006, during the Nothing Rhymes with Circus for their first record, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, it was were Radiohead’s Karma Police; when they went on the Honda Civic Tour in 2008 in support of second record Pretty. Odd. it was The Band’s The Weight ; during Rock Band Live, also in 2008, it was The Isley Brothers’ Shout and lastly in 2009 for the Believers Never Die tour with Blink-182 and FOB it was Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.
Brendon Urie
For this show – and I am hoping for the next tour – it was Science Fiction/Double Feature, from Rocky Horror Picture Show, with just Brendon Urie’s voice and the keyboard. It was a beautiful, unfussy valentine to campy ridiculousness, science fiction geekery and musicals all wrapped up into one song. You may, possibly, at this point, be unsurprised to learn that I put it on almost all of my mix-tapes, back when I made mix-tapes, and that it is my favorite song from that movie. Hearing it again, and so unexpectedly, was both a highlight of the evening and the moment that I fell in love with Panic! at the Disco all over again. In conclusion: that was great, and I can’t wait to see them again.
