Panic! at the Disco not what it appears

The Fall Out Boy prot & eacute;g & eacute;s brought their catchy show to Cleveland on Wednesday.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Fear runs deep in the Panic! at the Disco camp.
And it should. But before we get into how the outfit is breaking ranks from its peers, here's a quick recap: newcomer rock band features recently graduated high school kids from Las Vegas who quickly rose from obscure opener on last fall's Fall Out Boy-led Fusion Tour to current theater headliners based on the success of their gold debut "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" and its infectious radio singles "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and "But It's Better if You Do."
Whereas some bands -- especially those featuring teenaged, star-struck members like Panic! -- would bask in the limelight, drummer Spencer Smith said his group is hoping to reverse the trend that often finds the music industry eating its young. In fact, Panic! is striking first by distancing itself from the alt-rock mothership, from which it hatched less than a year ago. The outfit is using the very punk-pop success it received to alter its future.
"The fear [was] the band would have gotten stuck with that complete pop-punk thing that the kids that were going to the Fusion tour were really used to," said Smith, calling from New Hampshire. "Obviously every band on that tour was kind of in that category and then luckily, because we've been selling more records and because we've been getting more [radio and video] airplay, we're not choosing to take out any of the bands that we toured with before."
For openers
Specifically Panic! has pegged indie rock act The Dresden Dolls as opener for its current headlining tour, which takes place Tuesday at the Chevrolet Amphitheatre at Station Square in Pittsburgh. But the differentiation doesn't stop there. While many of its peers have been lambasted for putting on vacuous live sets, this band offers fans something special. And the inspiration for such diversity may surprise you.
"The Counting Crows is one of our favorite bands," Smith said. "We have their live CD where they do like a 10-minute version of a four-minute song. And the changes are amazing and it's awesome. Now it's just become this whole thing where getting ready for a tour is just not packing up our suitcases. We're sitting down, practicing and reworking everything. The cool thing about it is people are always going to hear something different."
Smith said a good example of what Panic! is capable of can be found during its opening four songs, which are played with interludes and without pause.
This includes "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage," "Time to Dance" and "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines," which goes directly into a cover of "Karma Police" by Radiohead. The band hopes to further distance itself with its sophomore album, which it plans on recording this winter and releasing next spring. However, in many ways, Panic! is already witnessing its metamorphosis.
"In talking to kids after concerts, they're saying, 'We're seeing something different,'" Smith said. "'Finally, it's not just the same rock concert.' Hopefully by the end of this tour, all of the people who like our group but are kind of skeptical of us as just another whatever trend, they'll see we're a little bit farther along than most of the other bands."