Panic! At The Disco Answers The Prayers Of The Wicked In Jersey

Pray For The Wicked Tour 2019

2018 was a year of some of the most spectacular concerts from some of the biggest names in music. Among those include Panic! At The Disco, led by quite possibly one of the greatest showmen of our time, and sole remaining original member of P!ATD, Brendon Urie. The band’s success was anything but overnight: instead Urie comes from humble beginnings. Panic! At The Disco began as a Blink 182 cover band and saw them getting their start to originals by singing for tips from anyone who cared to listen.

Their first album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was released in September of 2005. The album contained not only their first single but also one of their biggest most recognized songs “I Write Sins not Tragedies”. A song that eventually won them “Video Of The Year” at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

Fast forward to 2018, Urie and company released the follow up to 2016’s hit album Death Of A Bachelor with what would become another success by the name of Pray For The Wicked, led by the hit single “High Hopes”. The album found massive mainstream success and to date has racked up 1 billion streams by over 44 million fans throughout 65 countries on Spotify, making Pray For The Wicked a global phenomenon.

Along with the album came a massive tour which saw the group performing a summer tour throughout North America and even shows across the world in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. The tour was a critically acclaimed success with a ton of sold out dates thanks to the over the top spectacle created by Brendon Urie and his showmanship. Now in 2019 Panic! At The Disco return to the states and Canada for the second leg of the Pray For The Wicked Tour featuring opening acts Betty Who

I made my way out to New Jersey’s Prudential Center in the city of Newark. Prudential is home to the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and has housed legendary music acts such as Paul Mccartney, Elton John, and more. As I arrived in the venue, the energy was electric. You could feel the floor shake before the music even began. The Prudential Center was packed to the brim with music fans of all ages anticipating one of the biggest shows of the year.

The show began promptly at 7pm with the the opener, Betty Who (Kobalt Records). The Australian pop/electro performer is self taught on both piano and guitar.

In 2018 she released a remix version of Wildlife’s “All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)” which is being used for the theme song for season two of the Netflix reboot, Queer Eye. A video for the song was recently released and features the cast of Queer Eye and Who herself.

Betty Who is set to release her new album simply titled BETTY on February 15th. Back in November she released the single “Between Me and You”, you can pre-order the album Here!

It was time for the moment an entire arena had been waiting for – Panic! At The Disco was moments away from taking the stage. As time neared the arena lights dimmed and the screens on stage appeared with a timer, the countdown from 10 minutes began as fans roar with excitement.

As the clock reached zero, the venue went black and like a rocket Brendon Urie launchesd out of the stage, met by screams and even maybe a little bit of crying.

Panic! At The Disco jumped into the track “(Fuck A) Silver Lining” and then immediately into “Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time”.

As the band moved flawlessly into follow-up songs like “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” and “Ready To Go” the set paints a vivid portrait of who Panic! At the Disco are in 2019.

Of course the backing band is completely on point and drive the vehicle for Urie’s impressive four-octave tenor vocal range along with his sheer skill as a showman. It’s very much a setlist of material that combines glam and Broadway showtune perfection for the masses.

P!ATD have always had an element of glam in their aesthetic, but the influences of Urie’s recent run on Broadway with “Kinky Boots” definitely played a role in the feel of the Pray For The Wicked Tour both in performance and staging. Urie utilized the theatrical feel of the most recent albums and brought them full circle on stage.

Some of Panics! elaborate stage show features rows of fire, parts of the stage that literally drop and re-appear – sometimes with a piano and sometimes that piano even flies high above an arena of adoring fans, soaring above the audience while singing and playing a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”.

Urie has a tremendous ability to use every inch of such a large venue, whether soaring above the crowd and interacting with his audience and pointing out homemade signs in the crowd or literally walking through the audience taking selfies and giving hugs to fans on the floor, which he does for the entire length of the hit song “Death of a Bachelor”.

A big unexpected highlight of the show is Brendon playing an extravagant drum solo during the middle of “Miss Jackson”.

As the show went on Urie simply becomes more impressive, his vocals on “High Hopes” somehow make the album version look simple while the live version is almost enchanting, but that could also be because of moments where he heads to the end of the stage and sings along with fans belting their hearts out that could have something to do with the chilling effect the songs have on you throughout the evening.

The current version of Panic! At the Disco, which quite frankly is basically Urie’s solo project and I don’t mean that in a negative way. The band itself is not familiar to the band I knew 15 years ago.

However it’s Urie’s presence, gratitude and passion that is the platform keeping Panic! alive. His ability for theatrical musicianship connects the versions of Panic! At The Disco between then and now.

Without that showmanship it would be impossible for Panic! To shift between an incredible rendition of Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which Urie himself referred to as “One of The greatest pieces of music ever written” to the the song Urie credits “Started it all” referring to the endlessly popular hit pop jam of the early 2000’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”

The entire two hour performance spanning of 28 songs is filled with unforgettable moments, everything from Brendon effortlessly gliding across stage with his signature smile, to the performance of “The Greatest Show”, which they just performed for the first time on January 11th.

The song appears as part of the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman Reimagined.

Touching moments take over the show as well when Urie who is openly pansexual and quite a hero in the LGBT community receives rainbow flags on stage, three to be exact and proudly wears them around his neck while he sings his heart out, it’s not only a moving stand for the rights of the LGBT community but also an everlasting connection bonded with those fans who feel like they don’t have a voice. Urie proudly carries that torch for all those to be exactly the people they are without fear of judgement. After all there really is no safer space than a Panic! At The Disco show!

Urie and company will be on the road until February when the tour wraps up in Sacramento, CA at the Golden 1 Center on the 20th. If you’re a music fan looking for a unique show filled with passion, top notch vocals, true performance art and everything in between there is absolutely no need to look further than the Pray For The Wicked Tour!