Panic At The Disco Delighted A Sold Out Crowd At Chevrolet

By John Voket

The 2008 Honda Civic tour crashed into Wallingford’s Chevrolet Theater on May 10 and thousands of screaming witnesses paid tribute the amazing lineup of talented young musicians including one of the best new bands to hit the music scene in some time, headliners Panic at the Disco.

Show openers Phantom Planet proved they could take what might be fairly mundane three and four chord patterns, and make them consistently interesting. The foursome contributed retro sounding melodies alternating between classic British pop and American acts like the early Beach Boys.

With relatively stripped down Beatles-like instrumentation — two guitars, bass and drums — the foursome of Alex Greenwald, Sam Farrar, Darren Robinson and Jeff Conrad pumped out a too-short set dripping with hooky licks. The band never strayed too far from their major label debut, Raise the Dead, which yielded the best number of the set, “Geronimo.”

While the band’s co-founder, actor Jason Schwartzman, is long gone, Phantom Planet still obliged the predominantly female crowd, closing with their 2002 number, “California,” which became the popular title track for the Fox television show The OC.

The Hush Sound hit the stage next with an equally abbreviated set that was more jam band than power pop. Bob Morris, Chris Faller, Darren Wilson and Greta Salpeter showcased material that incorporated heavy washes of sound punctuated by alternating passages that highlighted Slapeter’s solid, wailing vocals.

This act’s positioning seemed to be designed to provide some quirky relief to the otherwise all male bill. And based on the audience reaction compared to the other three acts, perhaps The Hush Sound should have been the opener.

Nonetheless, the band moved through its ten-song set with ease, and quickly made way for the highly-anticipated full-length set from Motion City Soundtrack. Once they hit the stage, the Minneapolis-based group acted like they were playing before an audience of their closest friends.

Chatting, joking and posing for the many phone and digital cameras hoisted aloft for most of their set, Motion City frontman Justin Pierre, and bandmates Jesse Johnson, Tony Thaxton, Matthew Taylor and Joshua Cain tore up the stage, burning through a dozen songs including “My Favorite Accident,” and “The Future Freaks Me Out,” from their 2003 debut I Am The Movie.

Watching Motion City perform, one may get the idea that these guys were always the dopiest five nerds in the room, but their musicianship was top notch this evening. In fact, drummer Tony Thaxton was in spectacular form smacking down funky and complicated riffs with jazzy style.

And even if his contributions were mostly buried in the mix, synthesizer wizard Jesse Johnson rocked and tipped his keyboards precariously all the while whipping his foot-long bangs around like helicopter blades.

Overall, Motion City helped lift the already excited crowd to new heights, and helped reinvigorate the gathering just in time for the headliners.

This was the third opportunity this reviewer has had to check out Panic at the Disco, which dropped the conspicuous exclamation point from its name concurrent with the release of the bands latest album, Pretty, Strange. But their set was no less exciting than ever before.

During Panic’s 2006 debut in New York City, no amount of theatrics could mask the level of musical talent this Las Vegas quintet brought to the stage. At that time I proclaimed this band to be among the best to come along in many years.

Shedding all theatrics in the blazing Baltimore heat at last summer’s Virgin Mobile Festival, the group was even more exciting mixing several numbers from their popular debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, with then-unreleased samples from the upcoming project and an unforgettable cover of The Band’s “The Weight.”

Opening their Wallingford set with “We’re So Starving,” and transitioning immediately into the first single from Pretty, Odd, “Nine in the Afternoon,” Panic hit the ground running and never stopped for a moment. Tight rhythmic changes and lush vocal harmonies dominated throughout.

Although Panic’s material leans toward a psychedelic feel, the material overall remains fresh and unique compared to the band’s many peers, who unfortunately tender a more formulaic sound with choppy guitars and whining vocals.

Singer and primary songwriter Brendon Urie on the other hand, seems more suited for the theatrical stage with a broad smile and syrupy tenor, occasionally stealing a wink or smirking at some private joke among his bandmates.

Guitarist Ryan Ross, drummer Spencer Smith, bassist Jon Walker and touring keyboard player Eric Ronick are no slouches either, each playing an important role in capturing truly one of the most unique sounds in the pop music spectrum today.

The balance of Panic’s 90-minute set was highlighted by a re-worked version of “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” which had a more straightforward beat and acoustic guitar foundation instead of the synthesized strings that anchored the familiar album track.

While I might not go out of my way to see any of the three openers from this year’s Honda Civic Tour, it will be difficult to say no the next time Panic at the Disco heads into the region. If you only know this act from its few radio singles, or the occasional one-off television appearance, you haven’t experienced the full effect of this band.

It is certain that many of today’s most popular acts will quickly fade into memory, but mark my words, as long as its personnel continues to put out the level of compelling material evident on their first two releases, we’ll be talking about Panic at the Disco for many years to come.