Panic! at the Disco, Walk the Moon at Echo Beach

I laid out a lot of my nostalgic feelings and memories for Panic! at the Disco when I saw them earlier this year, then playing at Toronto’s Sound Academy. While the weather’s gotten warmer and a handful of months have passed, I can’t profess to having much more to say about them or their This is Gospel tour. Without a new album in hand (their recent swing through Toronto still in support of 2013’s Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!) and with a pretty comparable setlist, it’s a bit like beating a dead horse.

Because here’s the thing: when you go to a Panic! at the Disco show, you basically know what you’re going to get. They’ll check all the boxes and tick all the squares; vocalist Brendon Urie will be a consummate showman who will insist on dropping in lines about weed; and you’ll leave with the sound of shrill teenage screams ringing in your ears.

The shouting was present for opener Walk the Moon, an Ohio-based four-piece that won over the fairly sparse crowd with their bouncy pop rock. The band brought with them good percussive elements and the genuine sense they were having a good time on stage.

Walk the Moon was also a strong companion to Panic! at the Disco – vocalist Nicholas Petricca presenting a similar vocal timbre to that of Urie’s. While Petricca’s delivery isn’t quite as dramatic as his Vegas contemporary’s, there are certain similarities between their diction and melodic presentations.

Urie, to his credit, has long been heralded as one of the strongest voices in the scene-punk alt-rock game. At the Echo Beach show, he seemed slightly off however, struggling at times with delivery.

“Trade Mistakes”, from third album Vices & Virtues, was rough in vocals and general cohesion – sounding more like forceful labour than easy presentation. “Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off” was also problematic, his voice not quite holding for the chorus. Thankfully for the band, the audience was more than happy to help out.

You can pass the incidents off to a long day (Urie at one point explaining the band took a long time to clear Canadian customs, stating: “This is really special because we didn’t think we’d be able to play this show tonight,”) but it’s still generally surprising given how long they’ve been on the road for.

“Girls/Girls/Boys” was, in comparison, a much cleaner offering – the audience assisting the quartet forcefully. As far as songs in their catalogue go, it’s a good one that comes out in support of open and more fluid sexuality: Urie ending it with the line “and love is not a choice.”

Panic! also worked in a cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, proving that if Adam Lambert ever needs to take some time off, Urie is more than up for the task. Camera phones were held aloft as the iconic Wayne’s World clip played behind them, offering a nice intermission in a setlist heavy on songs from their first, third, and fourth albums (their second album from 2008, Pretty. Odd., remains the black sheep of the back catalogue – once again only single “Nine in the Afternoon” making an appearance.)

As they did back in February, the band ended with breakout hit “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” – a song I’ll forever associate with early high school. I left the show with the knowledge that nostalgia is much more fun the first time around.