Panic! at The Disco's much anticipated "Pray For the Wicked" is finally here - i99Radio, Philadelphia's Alternative Rock!

Bayside returned to Philly this past week for a two night stand celebrating their music both old and new. i99Radio was on the scene to capture night one of two. For the first night, Bayside brought songs from their early years, 2004 to 2008. For many of us, it takes us back instantly to the songs of our childhood, middle and high school years, and the audience spanning Gen X to Gen Alpha came ready to rock.

Long Island, NY’s The Sleeping started the night off and brought their unique blend of post-hardcore and raw energy to the stage that really got the audience going. People thrashed around and sang along, and even a toddler hopping up on his dad’s shoulders to get a better view of frontman Doug Robinson, who climbed up to the barrier, putting his microphone up to fans to sing along with them, and eventually even crowdsurfing above their heads at one point. The band has been experiencing a revival since their reunion in 2022 and their fantastic newest album, “I Feel Like I’m Becoming a Ghost”, dropping in 2023.

Bayside then took the stage, kicking off their set with the classic track, “Montauk”, from their second self-titled album. Frontman Anthony Ranieri commented how their idea for the “Errors Tour” came about when they wanted to play 44 songs in each city, instead of just 22. He talked about how the band has so many songs that fans love from all across their career, but not enough time to play them all, so they thought, “why not just play 2 nights in every city?”

The night of classic nostalgia continued on, with the band delivering high-energy versions of much loved tracks from their third album, 2007’s “The Walking Wounded”, like “Duality”, “I and I”, and the ballad “Landing Feet First” (of which started a massive audience singalong). The band also reached far back in their discography, playing tracks from their first years as a band, like “Masterpiece”, “Guardrail” and “Kellum”, off of the first album, 2004’s “Sirens and Condolences.” The audience was audibly excited by this, as these tracks are very rarely played live. The audience cheered loudly and unleashed a constant stream of crowd-surfers to the front of stage as they ripped through these classic tracks. The “newest” songs they played for night 1 were tracks from 2008’s classic album, “Shudder”, like “Boy”, “No One Understands” and “The Ghost of St. Valentine”. Again, many of these tracks haven’t been played since the Shudder Tour in 2008 so hearing these songs was certainly a treat for the audience.

Bayside’s show at Brooklyn Bowl was a testament to how the songs we grew up with are forever engrained in our DNA, the music grows with us and becomes a part of us as we grow older, but we never forget the songs that influenced us almost two decades ago. The 1,000 people in the audience who turned up to sing every word of these songs that are almost 20 years old now proves this to be true and Bayside to be a band close to so many people’s hearts.

Photos by Dave Avidan

“Pray For the Wicked” is the sixth studio album from Brendon Urie, and Panic! At the Disco. It is a follow up to their first number one album on the Billboard Top 200, “Death of a Bachelor” which released in 2016. Urie said in a series of instagram posts, that the inspiration took off for the album as soon as he returned home from touring with the show “Kinky Boots” on Broadway. As recent as yesterday, July 2nd, “PFTW” has debuted at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. On the day of its release, June 22nd, 2018, Urie writes on the band’s instagram, “This album surprised the hell out of me. I didn’t expect to have it out right now. I definitely didn’t expect it would have the songs that it does. And I never thought I’d be on album number six. And it’s all thanks to you. Thank you for your constant inspiration and support. We’ve built something incredible together and I’m forever grateful to you for all that you’ve done and continue to do for me.” Brendon Urie has evolved over the last decade from an emo, pop-punk, eyeliner wielding front man, to this suave, jazz era-reminiscent persona.
The first two tracks on the album, “(F*** A) Silver Lining” and “Say Amen (Saturday Night) were the two singles to come from the LP back in March of this year. Both set the tone of the album, which is slightly reminiscent of “Death of a Bachelor” but with all the more sass, and flair that fans have come to expect from Urie. While “DOB” focused more on the high life, and glamour of being a popstar bachelor, “PFTW” hones in more on the unyielding journey of getting to that point. In “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” Urie is directly tipping his hat to his mother, who was concerned when he was younger that he was going to be a starving artist. The lyrics, “’Cause I’m a hooker sellin’ songs / And my pimp’s a record label” are also revealing of the power struggle most singer/songwriters face with their label to constantly put out new content, regardless of quality. As well as the lyrics, “Friends are happy for me / Or they’re honeysuckle phonies / Then they celebrate my medals / Or they wanna take my trophies” recognizes the hardship of losing friends to fame, and the fake ones who only come along after the success. In the song “High Hopes” Urie reflects on his childhood and how he had always hoped for the chance of fulfilling his dreams. On the chorus he sings, “Had to have high, high hopes for a living / Didn’t know how but I always had a feeling / I was gonna be that one in a million”. Even in his youth Brendon had great confidence in his ability to live out his passion, and his motivation clearly paid off for him!
The first ten tracks are a collection of uptempo beats, triumphant horn sections, jazzy synths, and swinging drums. But the final song to close out the album is a stoic piano ballad performed by Urie alone titled, “Dying in LA”. The song tells the tale of the battles of coming to LA and being dazzled by all the allure and the opportunities, only to become worn out by the city over time. On the Zach Sang Show, Urie talks about the contradiction of ending this album with a melancholic timbre, “I think I like just to have that juxtapos[ition]. You need that contrast, at least I do. Whe[n] every song is so high energy, when [every song] is a danceable one, I liked ending a little morose, a little sad.” It shows the dark side of LA that oftentimes is overlooked for the charm of the “City of Angels”.

“Pray For the Wicked” is available now for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Panic! At the Disco are currently on their U.S. tour with Hayley Kiyoko, and A R I Z O N A, that concludes in their home town of Las Vegas, Nevada on August 18th. They then head out on their European tour the next week of August 25th, and return back to North America with a second tour beginning on January 10th, 2019. The band’s website has a full list of tour dates, as well as updates on the band, and their merch store.

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Panic! at The Disco’s much anticipated “Pray For the Wicked” is finally here