Average age of the four members of the Nevada rock band is 21. They're headlining this week's Honda Civic Tour, along with much older supporting acts, Motion City Soundtrack (average age: 30), and Phantom Planet (average age: 29).
Alex Greenwald, lead singer and guitarist for California's Phantom Planet, says just hanging out with the members of Panic at the Disco makes him "feel so much younger." "I was so much older then, I'm young than that now," he says, quoting from the chorus of Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages."
Panic at the Disco is headlining the tour based on the success of its 2005 debut, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out," which has sold more than 2 million copies. Championed by Fall Out Boy, the band's single, "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" fueled its early popularity and are now touring behind its second album, "Pretty. Odd," which features one of the early candidates for the summer song of 2008, "Nine in the Afternoon."
The band's finished second album turned out much differently than how it began, says guitarist and songwriter Ryan Ross, 21. "We were trying to bite off more than we could chew," he says. "We were writing an orchestral concept album, and we ended up writing ourselves out of the songs. There were no guitars or drums."
That concept was scrapped after recording. "It was liberating to write without worrying about continuing a storyline," he said.
The first tours of Panic at the Disco - the band dropped the exclamation point in its name earlier this year - were very theatrical. Their Victorian-era circus theme is gone from the current tour, because they no longer need spectacle as filler. "Now that we have two albums, we can play a proper set," he says. "People want to see you open up. The audience feels more involved."
Tourmates Phantom Planet began when the members were in their early teens. The band recently lost its first drummer, Jason Schwartzman, who left the band amicably to further his acting career. (He played the lead role in "Rushmore" and recently appeared in "The Darjeeling Limited" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.")
Greenwald, in contrast, has left his movie ("Donnie Darko") and modeling career (Old Navy) behind to prioritize playing in the band. The band recently released its fifth album, "Raise the Dead," and keeps with Greenwald's goal of changing the band's sound every album, much like the Beatles. Perhaps that explains why the most recent album has a "Sgt. Pepper" vibe.
Besides Schwartzman, the rock band is most famous for "California," the theme song for the teen-soap "The O.C."
Greenwald says he has been motivated by the youthfulness of Panic at the Disco, a group "so driven by playing music" that it reminds him of when his band started out, almost 15 years ago.
Panic's penchant for playing the video game "Halo 3" nonstop on tour also reminded him of when he was younger, Greenwald added.
The third band on the tour, Motion City Soundtrack, from Minnesota, is promoting its third album, "Even If It Kills Me," which reached a peak of No. 16 on the Billboard albums chart.
The band recently released an acoustic EP that is a stop-gap record as the band prepares its next album, bassist Matt Taylor says.
It was Panic that "got us excited about hacky-sack," Taylor said, and one of the Motion City Soundtrack band members and drum tech who compete against Panic members in "Halo 3."
"Those kids are learning a lot from us," Taylor says, laughing.
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* DAVID BURGER can be reached at dburger@sltrib.com or 801-257-8620. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
Bands will rock Great Salt Lake
Panic at the Disco performs Wednesday at Saltair, 12408 W. Saltair Drive, Magna. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 at SmithsTix and KTix. Also on the bill are Phantom Planet, Motion City Soundtrack and The Hush Sound.
