By SARA BORRO
staff writer
By SARA BORRO
staff writer
It has hardly been a month since Panic! At The Disco ended their summer-long tour with Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and music legend, Weezer.
On Sept. 22 the Las Vegas-based emo-pop band announced it will be heading back out on the road this spring with the “Death of a Bachelor Tour.”
This massive tour includes 35 U.S. dates and will last from late Febuary to mid-April. Joining them on the tour will be two indie-pop bands, New York City natives MisterWives and Saint Motel from Los Angeles.
With two indie-pop bands joining the posterchild of emo-pop on a tour, it is expected to be an interesting dynamic, and one fans are very excited and eager to witness.
Panic! At The Disco released their fifth studio album “Death of a Bachelor” this past January, and have been extremely successful and busy since.
In addition to their co-headlining summer tour with Weezer, Panic! did a small college tour in spring of 2016, which included a stop in Erie at Penn State Behrend.
Panic! has also put out multiple music videos for tracks off “Death of a Bachelor,” one of which was released the same day they announced their spring 2017 tour.
It is very common for bands to run mysterious and intriguing publicity ads before they announce something like a tour, special show, or release a music video, and that is exactly what Panic! did.
On Sept. 20 the band posted a photo on its Instagram account of what appeared to be a child sitting in a chair with his head facing down.
The photo is also watermarked with a triangle featuring exclamation point in the center, the Roman numerals “IX XXII” and the words “Join Us.”
On Sept. 21 they posted a video to their Instagram of a person running through a cornfield.
There is a very eerie background noise playing through the video and it ends with an aerial view of the cornfield, marked with the same cult-like triangle/exclamation mark duo and the same Roman numerals and words.
Also on Sept. 21 the band posted a second video to its Instagram account of the same boy from the original photo, who showed his face this time and appeared to be Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) of the wildly popular Netflix original series “Stranger Things.”
At this point in the campaign fans were confused, but assuming the band was about to release a new music video.
There was lofty talk of a tour announcement among the fandom, but that seemed a bit out of the realm of possibility since the band had just ended a monumental summer tour only weeks prior.
However, on the morning of Sept. 22, the band posted a short clip of its new music video for “LA Devotee,” announcing the video in the caption of the post, and also revealing that it was indeed going on a new tour starting in Febuary 2017.
In true Panic! At The Disco fashion, the video is strange. It is four minutes long and begins with a child walking through the woods and getting attacked and taken captive by a veiled creature.
After the child is dragged into the woods there is another aerial view of the cornfield marked with the triangle and exclamation point. It then cuts to Schnapp (or as watchers may better assume, Schanpp’s character, Will) strapped to a chair in a dimly lit, cult-torture-like setting.
When the song begins, Schnapp starts lip-syncing the song as masked creatures dance around him.
Also featured in the video is Panic!’s flawless frontman, Brendon Urie, dressed in an all-black suit singing along.
This is an interesting video for a few reasons. One of which is the obvious: Why is Will Byers in a Panic! At The Disco video?
It is probably no coincidence that Urie wanted to use the hype of “Stranger Things” to fuel his new music video, as the video has the same eerie and mysterious, horror-like feel the series has. It is always a fun and exciting experience when two fandoms collide and link up to create something new.
The second reason this music video is odd is because the “LA Devotee” video has been wildly anticipated by the fans of Panic! At The Disco. Urie has stated several times that this song is his favorite track off his newest record, so fans have been eagerly awaiting to see the visual masterpiece he would create with it.
Individuals who are fans of Panic! enjoy the video and can appreciate the very “Panic! At The Disco-ness” of it, while those who are not as big of fans find it weird (as they do most Panic! At The Disco music videos) and do not necessarily understand it.
However some fans are slightly disappointed with the video. Because this song is Urie’s favorite, some were expecting him to do something a bit more “special” or “woo-y” with the video, with more references to LA. No matter the specific opinion, it cannot be denied that what the band has done with this video is very cool and something that is original and different.
If you are interested in purchasing a ticket for the upcoming tour this spring, ticket sales can be found at panicatthedisco.com.
Consider making a trip to see Panic! at the Disco at one of their local tour dates including Pittsburgh on Feb. 28, Columbus, Ohio on Mar. 7 and Cleveland on Mar. 8.
SARA BORRO
[email protected]
