Friday 4 February 2011 photo 6/8
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A big-name band instantly selling out a small room: it’s called an underplay, and it’s becoming a standard gambit to get a new album noticed. That’s why Panic! at the Disco, which headlined Madison Square Garden in 2006 on the momentum of its million-selling debut album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out," was at the Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night, starting the promotional surge behind “Vices & Virtues" (Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance/Atlantic), its third album, to be released on March 29. The show coincides with the release of a single, “The Ballad of Mona Lisa" — not a ballad, but a midtempo rocker.
It’s a reboot for Panic! at the Disco, whose second album, “Pretty.Odd.," in 2008, dropped the exclamation point after Panic, veered toward baroquely retro late-1960s pop and has sold less than half a million copies in the United States. Not surprisingly, the band’s new songs notch up the tempos to approach the manic, articulate power-pop of its debut album. The exclamation point is back too.
In 2009 Panic! at the Disco split in half. Its singer, pianist and guitarist, Brendon Urie, and its drummer, Spencer Smith, kept the name; the founding guitarist and songwriter, Ryan Ross, and the bassist, Jon Walker, are now working as The Young Veins. Mr. Urie is now writing more of the lyrics, along with music; he had songwriting help from pop experts like the producer Butch Walker, who has worked with Avril Lavigne and Weezer. Onstage the current band includes Ian Crawford on guitar and Dallon Weekes on bass.
The concert enjoyed the prerogatives of a hit-making act: decorating the club with big white wreaths, putting candelabras on the balcony tables, adding violin and cello to the four-man band and bringing a bevy of dancers — costumed in black and gold lamé, brocade, leather and feathers — onto the club floor. And in what may have been a sly allusion to the show’s purpose, the first song in the set was “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage," with its chorus, “We’re still so young, desperate for attention."
The band members wore vests or suits with skinny ties, proclaiming their allegiance to the concision of new wave and power pop. Old songs got eager singalongs and happy squeals as Mr. Urie let loose a flair for drama that’s playfully campy. (Within the short set, he took the time to sing a solo version of a song from “The Rocky Horror Show.")
The new songs kept up the manic energy and tunefulness, but they hinted at the growing ambitions that surfaced on “Pretty.Odd.": there were tempo shifts, interludes of strings and synthesizer in “Let’s Kill Tonight," and hints of cabaret and tango, switching to power ballad, in “Nearly Witches." But the revamped Panic! at the Disco is disciplining itself; all its flourishes are tucked neatly between choruses that are proudly and insistently pop.
Source: NYTimes.com
It’s a reboot for Panic! at the Disco, whose second album, “Pretty.Odd.," in 2008, dropped the exclamation point after Panic, veered toward baroquely retro late-1960s pop and has sold less than half a million copies in the United States. Not surprisingly, the band’s new songs notch up the tempos to approach the manic, articulate power-pop of its debut album. The exclamation point is back too.
In 2009 Panic! at the Disco split in half. Its singer, pianist and guitarist, Brendon Urie, and its drummer, Spencer Smith, kept the name; the founding guitarist and songwriter, Ryan Ross, and the bassist, Jon Walker, are now working as The Young Veins. Mr. Urie is now writing more of the lyrics, along with music; he had songwriting help from pop experts like the producer Butch Walker, who has worked with Avril Lavigne and Weezer. Onstage the current band includes Ian Crawford on guitar and Dallon Weekes on bass.
The concert enjoyed the prerogatives of a hit-making act: decorating the club with big white wreaths, putting candelabras on the balcony tables, adding violin and cello to the four-man band and bringing a bevy of dancers — costumed in black and gold lamé, brocade, leather and feathers — onto the club floor. And in what may have been a sly allusion to the show’s purpose, the first song in the set was “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage," with its chorus, “We’re still so young, desperate for attention."
The band members wore vests or suits with skinny ties, proclaiming their allegiance to the concision of new wave and power pop. Old songs got eager singalongs and happy squeals as Mr. Urie let loose a flair for drama that’s playfully campy. (Within the short set, he took the time to sing a solo version of a song from “The Rocky Horror Show.")
The new songs kept up the manic energy and tunefulness, but they hinted at the growing ambitions that surfaced on “Pretty.Odd.": there were tempo shifts, interludes of strings and synthesizer in “Let’s Kill Tonight," and hints of cabaret and tango, switching to power ballad, in “Nearly Witches." But the revamped Panic! at the Disco is disciplining itself; all its flourishes are tucked neatly between choruses that are proudly and insistently pop.
Source: NYTimes.com
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