Robert Paul ChampagnePanic! at the Disco

Panic! at the Disco

Named after a line from Name Taken’s “Panic,” Panic! at the Disco was formed by drummer Spencer Smith, bassist Brent Wilson, guitarist Ryan Ross, and vocalist Brendon Urie, and founded in 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. While crafting pop-influenced songs with theatrical themes, quirky techno beats, and perceptive lyrics, they received some much-deserved attention.

They became the first group signed on Pete Wentz’s (bassist in Fall Out Boy) record label, Decaydance Records (now DCD2 Records). Their hit song that started it all, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” remains one of their top two top forty songs along with “Hallelujah.”

They have released six studio A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, Pretty. Odd., Vices & Virtues, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!, Death of a Bachelor, and now their most recent album Pray for the Wicked. These last two albums were actually solo projects from Brendon Urie, since all the other members of the band had already left the group before their release dates; in 2006, bassist Brent Wilson was fired due to his “lack of responsibility and the fact that he wasn’t progressing musically with the band.” And in 2009, guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker left the band to “embark on a musical excursion of their own,” forming The Young Veins. Dallon Weekes, who joined the band as a bassist and songwriter in 2009, had become a touring member only by the time Death of a Bachelor was released and later left the band completely in order to focus on his own music. Weekes was replaced by Nicole Row, the first female member of the band.