“Let’s get these hearts beating faster, faster“ because Panic! At the Disco is coming back to the stage and performing the entirety of their debut album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” next year on October 18, 2025, at the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas.
Just a week ago, I was scrolling through Instagram when suddenly, I looked at a post about the When We Were Young Music Festival, a rock music festival held annually. At first, I didn’t think much of it since I thought it was this year’s poster with Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance in their lineup (shoutout to both of them; I love them ), but when I saw who posted this flyer, it was none other than from the Panic At The Disco account. I immediately was in shock as it hasn’t been long since the “band’s” (a man-band after 2015 when all of the original official members left the band) frontman, Brendon Urie, announced last year at the beginning of 2023 that he would officially retire from the band as he wanted to focus on his family. I was shocked as the announcement was so recent, and now the band is coming back out of retirement so quickly. Still, what made this even more exciting for me as a fan was that on the poster, it is stated that the band would play the entirety of their debut album from 2004, which is my favorite, and many other people’s favorite. In this album they go all out on the pop-punk genre and it is known for its theme that centers around circus and burlesque, while also embedding other tones of music within their songs such as undertones of jazz and even classical music. Although I was excited by this announcement, many questions arose about how this performance would go down. Let me chime into the band’s history and legacy, which make this performance an anticipated one for the masses.
Panic! At the disco’s legacy
The way this band started sounds like a dream for any band that wants to make it big in the music industry. The band was initially called Pet Salamander, and the original founding members were the duo Ryan Ross, future lead guitarist, and Spencer Smith, future drummer. They both wrote a few songs for fun and eventually invited their friend, Brent Wilson, the future bassist, to join the band. The band was then renamed to Summer League. During this time, Ryan Ross was the lead singer but during a rehearsal, he needed someone to fill in his place and it was here where Brendon Urie, future lead singer, was invited by Brent Wilson to audition for the lead guitarist. However, during the rehearsal, the band realized Urie’s talent for backing vocals. They then collectively concluded in that moment that Urie would be better off as the band’s lead singer and Ross would take on the position of lead guitarist and backing vocals.
Now that the band was formed, what eventually set off the band’s first step toward becoming the next big thing was when Ross sent some of the band’s demos to none other than Fall Out Boy’s bassist, Pete Wentz through a live journal ( a once popular online network for blogs). If you’re wondering why they would send their demos to Fall Out Boy, Ryan Ross was a big fan of their band, so he did this on a whim, not thinking much of it (free will moment). However, Pete Wentz listened to their demos, saw the band’s potential, and immediately flew to Las Vegas to meet the members and listen to their live rehearsal (during this time, Pete was working on Fall Out Boy’s major debut Album From Under The Cork Tree). After this, Wentz immediately signed them to his starting record label, Decaydance Records. Once they were signed, all that was left was for the band to begin writing more songs to create their debut album,”A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” and get more experience performing on stage.
Then came the day on September 27, 2005, when the awaited album was released. By the end of that year, Panic! At Disco gained popularity and soon that album became certified triple platinum and would even go on to win the Video Of The Year for MTV’s music awards in 2006. The band eventually began to lose members, such as the firing of Brent Wilson for not taking the band’s tour seriously and missing various rehearsals around 2006 and was replaced by John Walker. In 2009, Ryan Ross and John Walker stepped away from the band due to “creative differences” after releasing their second album, Pretty Odd, to start their band, The Young Veins. Eventually, Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith were left as a duo and created two more albums, Vices and Virtues in 2011 and Too Weird to Live, Too Rare To Die in 2013. However, the fourth studio album would be the last time Spencer would be featured as he stepped back to battle his addiction by seeking rehabilitation for help. After 2015, Brendon Urie became the only member left, continued to create music, and kept the band’s name. It became more of a solo project until 2023 when Brendon announced that the band would be permanently dissolved. Brendon wanted to focus on his personal life, as he was expecting to have a child and wanted to focus on being a father. That was ultimately the end of the band, until now when it leaves so many questions for its future with this coming performance for next year. Now, with that overview of the band’s history, let’s get into the album that started it all.
Breaking down a fever, you can’t sweat out
This album started it all for the band and put them on the map. The lyrics to “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” songs were inspired by Ryan Ross’s favorite author, Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, who is famous for his dark writing style. The song titles for this album are noticeably long and, although this may look weird now, this was popular during the pop-punk scene of the early 2000s. This was also essentially inspired by Fall Out Boy’s Albums always having long song titles, so it was an influence from their idols to have that aspect in their debut album. The intro and the interlude of the album set the scenery for a classy environment as they have tones of classical music along with the eeriness of the static of the radio they embed within those parts of the album. Now, let’s get to the meaning of the songs in the album:
1) London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines
This song is about critics’ influence on rebuking a band’s essence, pushing them to the point of not being themselves, and judging artists to take their liberty away and essentially eliminate style.
2) Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks and Camisado
Ryan Ross wrote these songs about his experience and relationship with his father, who was battling alcoholism, and essentially how their relationship is strained, but also how his father criticized Ryan for his decisions in life, especially his career.
3) Time to Dance
This song sealed the deal for Pete Wentz to sign the band to his record label, as the music experimented with beats (and was honestly a vibe), and was heavily influenced and based on Chuck Palhniuk’s novel Invisible Monsters. The demo for this song is fantastic, especially considering that the movers were still in high school when they created this song. It shows you the potential and talent that Wentz saw in them.
4) Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off / I Write Sins Not Tragedies/ Build God, Then We’ll Talk
These songs are about Ryan’s anger toward his girlfriend cheating on him, ultimately ending their three-year relationship. However, despite the heartbreak, they created a fantastic song that uses the quote from the movie Where Natalie Portman Starts, Closer, as its song title to convey the lyricist’s experience.
5) But It’s Better If You Do
The title of this song is also based on the movie, Closer, in which Natalie Portman stars in and focuses on the story of a man who visits a nightclub and discusses how he wishes he didn’t and conveys his battle with loneliness.
6) I Constantly Thank God for Esteban
This song comments on the hypocrisy of religious institutes and essentially goes deeper by exposing how people can be hypocrites.
7) There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered, Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet
The song tells the story of a man who tries to go on a perfect date but pretends to be someone he is not, and then things don’t go as planned.
What are my expectations For this concert?
The main question I have for this performance that many other fans have asked themselves is whether or not the original band members will return to perform this iconic album. While that would be epic, I’m still determining as I feel like, instead, this event would be promoted as a band reunion rather than a one-night event. In this case, the most likely outcome would be for Brendon Urie to perform the whole album for one night on his own, as he’s done before in the past with other albums after all the other band members left in 2015. However, I’m hopeful that maybe there is a chance that they could come back as there is a “WE” in the caption of the Instagram post; however, I could be stretching the meaning as they did quote the announcement they had at the introduction of their album.
Note: I really want to see Ryan Ross come back one last time during my lifetime to perform on stage as well as the other members T_T