Panic! at the Disco Continues after Split
The New Incarnation of the Pop-punk Band Debuts with Blink-182
Aug 20, 2009
When Panic! at the Disco announced their split in early July, losing two members and regaining a punctuation mark, it took everyone by surprise. Except, apparently, the band.
Panic!’s Split Caused by Musical Divergence
Since the release of Pretty. Odd. last year, Panic! fans have been divided by which of the young band's albums they preferred. A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, Panic!'s debut album, featured a more alt-punk sound, while Pretty. Odd. owed more than a little to the psychedelic phase of the Beatles.
Little known to the fans at the time, the band was splitting along similar lines. During recent touring and the breaks afterward, Spencer Smith and Brendon Urie started writing songs together, and Jon Walker and Ryan Ross did the same. When they compared notes, they discovered they were pursuing different types of music. Smith and Urie were following the alt-pop, post-emo, semi-baroque direction established in Fever. Walker and Ross, by contrast, had continued down the Pretty. Odd. path, continuing to pen music that wouldn't sound out of place on a radio in the mid-60s. A split seemed inevitable.
Unlike many rock band splits, though, the Panic! divorce proved amicable. Smith and Urie are continuing under the Panic! name, with exclamation point firmly in place (the band dropped the odd punctuation for their second disc, leading to unexpected controversy). Ross and Walker have formed The Young Veins, and are busily working on their own new music with Alex Greenwald, formerly of Phantom Planet, and Rob Mathes, who produced Pretty. Odd. Both dropped singles on the same day, with Panic! releasing "New Perspective," penned by Urie, from the soundtrack for the movie Jennifer's Body, and The Young Veins unveiling "Change," a catchy, rhythmic tune with quirky lyrics by Ross.
Blink-182 Reunion Tour Showcases the New Face of Panic!
The timing for the split seemed in some ways to be a poor choice. Panic! was scheduled to embark on the Blink 182 reunion tour, opening for the reunited band. (In a side note, an early incarnation of Panic! was primarily a Blink cover band.) Many fans were concerned that the new incarnation of the band wouldn’t be able to carry a show so soon.
Smith and Urie, however, have proven them wrong. Before the tour, they teamed up with Dallon Weekes of the Brobecks, and Ian Marshall, who recently departed The Cab (and with rumor having it that Cash Colligan has also left the band, these Vegas natives might be on the way to splitting up, as well). In fact, splitting before an opening gig was probably a very good idea for the band, as it put less of a burden on Marshall and Weekes, since they only had to provide a short set. It also got them in front of audiences quickly, putting to rest any ideas fans might have that they were splitting up for good.
At a recent show at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Chicago, the new Panic! was in fine form. While the atmosphere was much less whimsical than past tours, Smith and Urie were obviously enjoying themselves, as were Marshall and Weekes. The seven-song set leaned more toward Fever than Pretty. Odd.—understandable given the direction Smith and Urie plan to take. The Pretty. Odd. tracks—"Nine in the Afternoon" and "That Green Gentleman"—fell a bit flat without the whimsy, but were competent. Their new track, though, "New Perspective," sounded considerably better live than the studio version, as it lacks the strange audio tweaks, which distract from Urie’s powerful voice.
Overall, the new incarnation of Panic! looks to be alive and well, and promise to provide even more catchy, fun tunes in the future, as Smith and Urie look forward to a new album early next year.
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