Panic! At The Disco brings its Death of A Bachelor tour to the Wells Fargo Center

 

Panic! At The Disco | Photo by Sydney Schaefer for WXPN | sydneyschaeferphotos.com

The lights inside the Wells Fargo Center dimmed, but the background music was still playing; the stage was set and the crowd of fans were screaming. However, it was merely a tease. A countdown illuminated the darkness, lighting up the excited faces the audience on the floor; it appeared above the elevated drum kit. The countdown was nearing zero, and the crowd began to count backwards with it as the background music faded away. “Five, four, three, two, ONE,” and with that, the crowd erupted even louder than before as each musician came on stage and took their positions.

Dressed in black suits, the guitar players, horn players, and drummer, all came out from center stage, one by one. All together, the beginning notes of “Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time” flooded from each instrument as Brendon Urie, the leader of Panic! At The Disco, and his gold suit jacket came out on stage singing “ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT. ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT”, the opening line of the song. At the sight of Urie, the screams became ear-splitting, and persisted the whole night.

Panic! At The Disco’s Death of A Bachelor Tour made its way to Philly on Saturday night, the second night of the month-and-a-half-long tour, and Urie and his tourmates in openers Saint Motel, not to mention upbeat groovy peeps in Misterwives, started off this full U.S. leg with a bang. First to play was Saint Motel, and then Misterwives, who both got the crowd in an upbeat mood which was able to keep its momentum all the way through until Panic!’s set.

After Urie and his band officially opened their set, they went right into another song off of Death Of A Bachelor, “LA Devotee”, which is a personal favorite of mine. The beginning of Panic!’s set included other songs off of the newest album, such as “Golden Days” as well as some older ones, like “Hallelujah.” After this is when the party really got started.

Urie went under the high-rise that the drum kit was on and disappeared from sight, however, only momentarily. Seconds later, he reemerged from the front of the high-rise, sitting at a piano, as he and the instrument glided along to the front of the stage where he belted out “Back to the street, where we began,” the first lyric of “Nine in the Afternoon” the hit song off of the band’s 2008 release, Pretty. Odd. Following this piano ballad, Urie and his band went right into “Miss Jackson,” which is a song that will definitely get you off your feet and screaming, which, of course, it did. The end of the “Miss Jackson” led to an abrupt interruption, when Urie exited the stage and the stage went dark, which was illuminated seconds later by that same screen that had earlier displaced the countdown to Panic!’s set. This time, it showed a video of Urie going into his dressing room and being kidnapped by an unknown woman. Urie wakes up tied to a chair, and different people are talking to him, one of which was Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, which of course led to screams of insanity by the crowd every time Wentz’s face popped up on screen.

As the video ended, Urie appeared on a smaller stage toward the back of the venue behind the sound board where another piano was. Here, he played the very moving piano rendition of “This Is Gospel”, as Urie and his piano were lifted into the heights of the venue as the song progressed, and then back down again as the song ended.

Upon finishing “This Is Gospel,” Urie made his way back up to the main stage to play the rest of his set. However, he decided to literally go through the crowd. Escorted by security, Urie made his way up the rows of the Wells Fargo Center floor seats, while singing “Death of A Bachelor” and hugging every fan that caught his eye. The ending up the song came when he finally reached the main stage again. “Thanks for the hugs,” said Urie. “I love the love.”

This was then followed by “The Ballad of Mona Lisa”, which then lead into a brief explanation by Urie about the next song. “We’re gonna try something we’ve never done before,” he said. “We’re gonna play a song by one of my all time favorite artists.” Now, prior to the show, I obviously looked up the setlist. Since this was only the second night of tour, I was under the assumption that Urie and his band were going to play the same set as they had the previous night, which was the first night of the tour and the setlist I was looking at. During this slot, they had played “Starboy” by The Weeknd, so I was pretty confused at this point. However, Urie’s piano was brought back out; he sat back down and began playing “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” by BILLY FRIGGIN JOEL. To say I lost my shit is definitely and understatement. (I’m pretty sure I was the only one in my section who was excited about this/knew all the words.)

After Urie’s special Joel cover, he and his band went into a few more original songs, including some off of the newest album, Death Of A Bachelor as well as some old songs. Toward the end of the set, Urie gave another brief commentary about the upcoming song, which this time was a cover of Queen’s famous song, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Urie brief spoke about their beliefs on equality, which Freddie Mercury would’ve been extremely proud of. This cover was followed by Panic!’s all time favorite hit song, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” you know, that one Panic! song EVERYBODY knows? However, this wasn’t the end of their set, they had one more song left for the audience. The sold out show was ended with the first track off of Death Of A Bachelor, “Victorious”. You can check out more photos from the show below!

Setlist

Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time
La Devotee
Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)
Golden Days
Vegas Lights
The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage / Camisado / But It’s Better If You Do
Hallelujah
Nine in the Afternoon
Miss Jackson
This Is Gospel
Death of a Bachelor
The Ballad of Mona Lisa
Movin’ Out (Billy Joel cover)
Emperor’s New Clothes
Nicotine
Crazy=Genius
Let’s Kill Tonight
24K Magic / Bitch Better Have My Money (Bruno Mars and Rihanna cover)
Girls/Girls/Boys
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen cover)
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Victorious