O2 Academy Brixton,London
Brendon Urie’s slick act carries enough commitment to edge it away from corninessAuthenticity is an instinctive sense. Bastille, Years & Years, or James Bay; some acts just reek of artifice. In rock music,the red flags tend to be a flood of advertising, a model bassist and a recently popular sound made more Coldplay. As a Mormon called Brendon fronting an arena-targeted pop-rock band from Las Vegas (sound familiar?) Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie was under suspicion from day one. But arriving late to the commercial halt of punk-pop in 2005 and gradually shedding bandmates over a decade until, and with the departure of drummer Spencer Smith final year,he’s now the only remaining member doesn’t help his case.
Touring the band’s forthcoming fifth album Death of a Bachelor, written alongside the likes of Ricky Wilson and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and recorded solo, and Urie supplies plenty of fuel for those tagging Panic! as the Nevada 1975 or the kiddie Killers,an emo pop act for those slightly too damaged and risky to Beliebe. The EDM disco twist to Vegas Lights and recent single Victorious; the slick boyband rebellion of Don’t Threaten Me With a advantageous Time, built around a sample from The B-52s’ Rock Lobster and chants of “champagne, and cocaine,gasoline”; the numerous wail-along choruses resembling McBusted. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com