Panic! at the Disco

• 1. Introduction

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  Panic! at the Disco was a Las Vegas band that began as a Blink-182 cover group rehearsing in a grandmother's living room and ended nearly two decades later as the sole domain of one man. Between those two points: a debut single certified diamond in the US, a tour featuring contortionists and ribbon dancers, a drummer's very public battle with addiction, and a final concert in Manchester, England. The questions worth following are: how does a band that had never performed a single live show land a record deal? And how does that same band survive the departure of nearly everyone who started it?

• 2. A Living Room and a LiveJournal

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  Ryan Ross and Spencer Smith both attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas and began playing music together in ninth grade. They pulled bassist Brent Wilson in from Palo Verde High School, and Wilson brought along his classmate Brendon Urie. The four initially rehearsed in Smith's grandmother's living room, and Ross handled lead vocals until the group heard Urie sing during practice and immediately handed the role to him.

  The band modeled its name after a line in a song called "Panic" by a group called Name Taken. Their goal was to sound lighter and more accessible than the heavier acts dominating Las Vegas at the time. That ambition was enough for them to sign a recording contract before they had ever played a live show, an unusual step that immediately attracted backlash online.

  The path to that contract ran through a LiveJournal account. Ross and Urie sent a demo to Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz that way, and Wentz was in Los Angeles at the time finishing his own band's major-label debut, From Under the Cork Tree. He drove to Las Vegas after hearing "two to three" songs at a band practice, and he was impressed enough to make them the first signing on his new Decaydance Records imprint, a subsidiary of Fueled by Ramen. The deal closed around December 2004.

  Wentz wasted no time promoting them. He wore "Pete! at the Disco" shirts onstage, mentioned the band in interviews, and gave a public shout-out at a press event on the day before the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards: "Their record is going to be your next favorite record. It's called A Fever You Can't Sweat Out - get it before your little brother does." The internet audience was less generous. With only two songs online, strangers were already making assumptions about what kind of band they were.

• 3. Five and a Half Weeks on Bunk Beds

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  Urie graduated in May 2005, and Wilson and Smith finished school online. The band then left for College Park, Maryland, to record their debut album from June through September of that year. They arrived with only partial songs and no days off. Ross described the pace as twelve to fourteen hours a day for five and a half weeks, with all four of them crammed into a one-bedroom apartment on bunk beds.

  Ross recalled that the pressure produced absurd tension: someone would write a new part for a song, and someone else would reject it not because it was bad but because that person had eaten their cereal that morning. Despite this, the record took a surprising structural shape. The first half leaned toward electronic dance punk. The second half shifted entirely, drawing on Vaudevillian piano, strings, and accordion. The inspiration came from film scores, specifically the work of composers Danny Elfman and Jon Brion.

  A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was released on the 27th of September 2005. Its first-week sales were nearly 10,000 copies, and it debuted at number 112 on the Billboard 200. Those numbers were modest. What changed everything was the second single. "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" accelerated sales past the 500,000 mark within months, and the music video won Video of the Year at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. The album was eventually certified diamond in the US. The band's first live show had taken place only that summer, at a venue called The Alley on West Charleston in Las Vegas.

• 4. Circus, Bottles, and a Phone Call

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  The Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour, which launched in November 2006, was unlike most rock tours. Every song came with dance numbers, skits, and tricks performed by a six-member troupe. The band wore intricate costumes and loosely re-enacted moments from their songs onstage. Kelefa Sanneh, writing for The New York Times, observed: "There's something charming about watching a band trying to navigate sudden success, aided by a contortionist, a ribbon dancer and all the rest of it." In roughly one year, Panic! had moved from the opening slot on a five-band bill to headlining arena tours.

  The touring year of 2006 also included a jarring moment at the Reading Festival in August, when the band was met with excessive bottling from the crowd. One bottle hit Urie in the face and knocked him unconscious. He recovered and the band finished the set.

  Offstage, the original lineup was already fracturing. On the 17th of May 2006, the band announced that bassist Brent Wilson had left. Wilson later told MTV News that the firing came via a phone call, and that only Smith spoke while Urie and Ryan Ross listened silently on speakerphone without saying a word or apologizing. Smith's published response stated that the decision was based on Wilson's lack of musical progression and responsibility, and he revealed that Wilson had not actually written or played any bass on the debut album. Urie had recorded those parts. Wilson demanded a share of royalties and threatened legal action. He was replaced by Jon Walker.

• 5. A Cabin and a Scrapped Album

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  In March 2007, the band retreated to a cabin in the mountains of Mount Charleston, Nevada, to begin writing what would become their second album. They initially called it Cricket & Clover. Songs like "Scarlet" and "It's True Love" were among those written. One track, "Nearly Witches", survived and was eventually placed on the third album, Vices & Virtues, in 2011. By August 2007, the band scrapped the entire project. Ross later said it was three-quarters finished.

  They started over, stripping the writing process down to a single acoustic guitar and a voice. Ross described this as catching up on a step they had skipped during the debut. In October 2007, they entered the Studio at the Palms inside the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas to record the new album. In January 2008, the band briefly dropped the exclamation point from their name.

  Pretty. Odd. was released on the 21st of March 2008. The band described it as more organic and mellower than the debut, and noted it had an unintentional similarity to the Beatles in both songwriting and scope. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with first-day sales of 54,000 and a first-week total of 139,000 copies. That beat the previous high-water mark held by A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, which had sold 45,000 in its best week. Barry Walters of Spin called the debut album "embarrassing" while praising Pretty. Odd. as daring "to be optimistically beautiful at a time when sadness and ugliness might have won them easier credibility."

  The tour in support of Pretty. Odd. was a visual inversion of the circus extravagance that came before. Each show used woodsy set pieces, projections of flora and fauna, and mic stands wrapped in lights and flowers. Each band member dressed in a vest. A live album, ...Live in Chicago, recorded during the Honda Civic Tour, was released on the 2nd of December 2008.

• 6. Departures and a Smaller Band

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  On the 6th of July 2009, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker announced via the band's website that they were leaving. Ross said he first raised the idea with Smith over lunch in late June 2009, and that Smith had been about to say the same thing. The creative divide was simple: Urie wanted a more polished pop direction, while Ross favored retro-inspired rock. Ross and Walker went on to form The Young Veins, which released one album called Take a Vacation! before going quiet.

  The day after the split announcement, it was reported that a new song, "New Perspective", written without Ross and Walker, would appear on the soundtrack to the film Jennifer's Body. Former members of the Cab and the Brobecks, Ian Crawford and Dallon Weekes, filled in for live shows during the Blink-182 Summer Tour in August 2009.

  Vices & Virtues, recorded solely by Urie and Smith in 2010 and produced by John Feldmann and Butch Walker, was released on the 22nd of March 2011. Weekes joined the official band lineup during this period, although he did not play on the album. His contribution was conceptualizing and appearing on the album's cover art, masked in the background behind Urie and Smith. Urie, during the Vices & Virtues Tour, told Spin he had been reading about Tesla coils and was trying to work out how to use one onstage without injuring anyone.

  On the 12th of May 2011, the band collaborated with indie pop band Fun. on an American tour and released a joint single called "C'mon". The band also contributed a song called "Mercenary" to the soundtrack for the video game Batman: Arkham City.

• 7. Spencer's Exit and One Man Standing

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  Before the band began touring in support of Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!, released in October 2013, Smith wrote an open letter to fans disclosing that he had been struggling with alcohol and prescription medications since the recording of Pretty. Odd. He joined the first handful of tour dates, then left to address his addiction. Urie posted on the band's website on the 7th of August 2013 that the tour would continue without Smith while he got help. Dan Pawlovich of the band Valencia filled in on drums.

  On the 2nd of April 2015, Smith officially left the band. Weekes reverted to touring musician status around the same time. By the end of 2015, Panic! at the Disco was effectively Brendon Urie alone, making creative decisions with a team of writers.

  Death of a Bachelor arrived on the 15th of January 2016. The lead single, "Hallelujah", debuted at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's second-highest chart position at that point. In August 2016, the band released a cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" for the Suicide Squad soundtrack. On the 27th of December 2017, Weekes formally announced his departure from the band after more than eight years.

  Pray for the Wicked followed in June 2018. Its single "High Hopes" became the band's highest charting entry, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in fall 2018. In September 2018, Urie and the band dismissed touring guitarist Kenneth Harris following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct involving underage fans. His replacement, Mike Naran, formerly of Sparks the Rescue, was announced on the 6th of October 2018.

  Urie received the Key to the City of Las Vegas in 2019. That same year, Panic!'s recording of "Into the Unknown" appeared in the credits of the animated film Frozen II.

• 8. The Last Show in Manchester

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  Viva Las Vengeance, the seventh studio album, was released on the 19th of August 2022. The lead-up included a teaser website called "Shut Up and Go to Bed" launched on the 14th of May 2022. The album's release day also brought a music video for a track called "Sad Clown". In October 2022, a 2016 song called "House of Memories" went viral on TikTok, prompting the band to re-release it along with slowed-down and sped-up versions.

  On the 24th of January 2023, Urie announced that he and his wife were expecting a child and that he would be ending Panic! at the Disco to focus on his family. The final show of the Viva Las Vengeance Tour took place on the 10th of March 2023 in Manchester, England.

  What came after the disbandment offered a partial reunion. On the 29th of October 2024, it was announced that Panic! would headline the When We Were Young festival on the 18th and the 19th of October 2025, performing A Fever You Can't Sweat Out in its entirety. On both nights of the festival, Spencer Smith joined Urie onstage to play drums for a second, closing performance of "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". The day after the festival, a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was announced, and the 2006 live album Live in Denver was made available on vinyl and streaming for the first time.