Panic At The Disco, Barrowlands, Glasgow

Panic At The Disco have never been a band who seemed satisfied with where they were. After releasing their hugely popular debut album, a rock record with cabaret allusions entitled ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ in 2005, they waited a full three years to capitalise on it, and the follow-up became the folksy, Beatles-inspired Pretty Odd. Still unsatisfied, the group splintered into factions last year (with only frontman Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith now remaining from the initial lineup). Panic then dropped most of the grandiose stage antics and the veil of constructed gimmicks to deliver the competent, catchy pop-rock album ‘Vices & Virtues’. But has their live performance kept up with the breakneck pace that the band’s music has evolved at? Panic At The Disco seem eager to prove that it has.

The band open to rapturous approval from their masses of fans, and instantly display a supremely confident sense of showmanship and performance going far beyond the manufactured posing of some of the bands that they are often grouped in with. Their more grandiose songs such as ‘The Ballad Of Mona Lisa’ and ‘Lying Is The Most Fun…’ have the unfortunate tendency to veer into the egotistical, as Brendon displays an impressive but unnecessary falsetto and introduces some some songs with self-indulgent speeches. But nonetheless, these arrogant flights of fancy are lapped up by the audience, and as a result the atmosphere of the gig remains feverish throughout the night.

A potential fault of the gig would be the bands failure to communicate directly with the crowd. There are the aforementioned extended speeches introducing songs, and on-stage acrobatics, but none of it feels as if it hadn’t been done in any other venue in any other town. This would be more significant if the band didn’t manage to keep the audience alive without shutting themselves off from the crowd and performing in their own world, despite this lack of distinction. As a result, the lack of a personal connection highlights the quality of the performance, as it still manages to hold the interest of the crowd who may have been expecting something more unique when they bought their tickets.

The setlist for tonight is most definitely created with the fans in mind. It is almost twenty songs long, and features almost the entirety of their first and third albums, while completely ignoring their controversial sophomore effort sans two singles. There are low-points despite this, as album tracks follow one another consecutively. Thankfully though, the fanbase’s dedication to every song in the bands canon keeps the gig moving throughout.

This performance doesn’t feel special, but it does feel confident, polished, and displaying the talents of a band that know exactly what they do best and what the fans want. The fact that these things almost always intertwine is a wonderful coincidence that adds up to this being a brilliant show for all those in attendance, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the band that never stays still.