2004–2005: Formation as rock band and early years Panic! at the Disco was formed in 2004 in the suburban area of
Summerlin,
Las Vegas, by high school friends
Ryan Ross, who played guitar, and
Spencer Smith, who played drums. They both attended
Bishop Gorman High School, and they began playing music together in ninth grade. They recruited bassist Brent Wilson from
Palo Verde High School, who then invited his friend and classmate
Brendon Urie to join the band. Initially, Panic! at the Disco was a
Blink-182 cover band. The quartet decided to model their name after a line in
Name Taken's song "Panic". Urie has stated that he sang for tips during his time working, thus indicating he had some prestige as a singer. The four left their educations behind to concentrate on music; Ross had a falling-out with his father when he dropped out of college, and when Urie dropped out of high school, his parents kicked him out of the house. Ross and Urie sent a demo to
Fall Out Boy bassist
Pete Wentz via a
LiveJournal account. Upon hearing "two to three" songs during band practice, Wentz was impressed and immediately wanted the band to sign to his
Fueled by Ramen imprint label
Decaydance Records, which made the band the first on the new label. At the time of the band's signing, all of the band members were still in high school (with the exception of Ross, who was forced to quit
UNLV). Urie graduated in May 2005, and Wilson and Smith finished school online as the band left for College Park, Maryland, to record their debut record.
2005–2007: ''A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'' The band relocated to College Park, Maryland, to record its debut album from June to September 2005. The album is split into two halves: the first half is mostly electronic dance punk, while the second half features Vaudevillian piano, strings, and accordion. The band's debut album, ''A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
, was released September 27, 2005. Sales began relatively slow. It debuted at No. 112 on the Billboard
200 album chart, No. 6 on the Billboard
Independent Albums chart, and No. 1 on the Billboard
Top Heatseekers chart, with nearly 10,000 albums sold in the first week of release. Within a span of four months, Panic! would release the video for its second single, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", rocket up the Billboard
Hot 100 as sales of Fever'' passed the 500,000 mark. "Some aspects of the fame are annoying, but at the end of the day it's something we're most grateful for. It's certainly opened the door to a whole new batch of opportunities," Ross said of the band's newfound fame and instant success. He was replaced in the band by
Jon Walker. In June, Wilson asserted to MTV News that he was kicked out of the band via a phone call. "It was done as a phone call and the only person who spoke was Spencer. Apparently, Brendon and Ryan were on the speakerphone too, but they didn't say a word. They never even said they were sorry," explained Wilson. Smith wrote a lengthy e-mail back to James Montgomery of MTV News, stating, in part, "We made the decision based on Brent's lack of responsibility and the fact that he wasn't progressing musically with the band," and revealed that Wilson did not write nor play any bass present on
Fever. Instead, Urie recorded these parts. Wilson demanded a cut in royalties, and threatened to take his former band to court. In 2006, the band supported
the Academy Is... on the band's worldwide Ambitious Ones and Smoking Guns Tour from January to May. Beginning in June, the group headlined its first unnamed national tour, that would last until August. During the group's performance at the
2006 Reading Festival in August, the band was greeted by excessive
bottling, one of which hit Urie in the face that knocked him unconscious. Despite this, the band continued with its set after Urie recovered. The band's second headlining tour, dubbed the Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour, began in November. In roughly one year, Panic! at the Disco went from being the opening act on a five-band bill to the headliners on a massive arena tour. The Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour feature the band's first highly theatrical live shows, which featured every song with dance numbers, skits, and tricks performed by a six-member troupe, as the band donned intricate costumes, loosely re-enacting moments from the songs. Kelefa Sanneh of
The New York Times noted the sudden success and circus-inspired tour of the young band in a concert review: "There's something charming about watching a band trying to navigate sudden success, aided by a contortionist, a ribbon dancer and all the rest of it."
MTV News favorably likened its theme and wardrobe to "
Janet Jackson's audience-dividing, hypersexual
The Velvet Rope Tour." The group, fresh off the major success of ''A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'', took a break after non-stop touring, and the group members began formulating ideas for their next album together during the winter of 2006.
2007–2009: Pretty. Odd. In March 2007, after a short period of development regarding the ideas of the album, the band arrived at a cabin in the rural mountains of
Mount Charleston, Nevada and began the writing process for the new album,
Cricket & Clover. After recording the new tracks and performing them live over the summer, the band returned to its native Las Vegas as well as the group's old rehearsal studio, where the band members wrote their debut record. Songs such as "Scarlet" and "It's True Love" have had lyrics found. One track from
Cricket & Clover, "Nearly Witches", was later featured on
Vices & Virtues in 2011. The band grew uninterested in the songs previously written and by August scrapped the entire new album (which Ross later revealed was "three-quarters" done) In January 2008, the band unveiled a new logo and dropped the exclamation point from the group's name, becoming Panic at the Disco. Released on March 21, 2008,
Pretty. Odd. was described by the band as "more organic and mellower" than ''A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
, as well as unintentionally and coincidentally similar to music of the Beatles, in both songwriting and scope. The record debuted at number two on the US Billboard'' 200 chart, with first-day sales of 54,000, and first-week sales of 139,000 copies in the United States. Those figures marked the band's biggest sales week to that date, beating a previous record held by ''A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'' (which sold 45,000 during the winter of 2006). The record also debuted at Current Alternative Albums chart and No. 2 on the Digital Albums chart, the latter of which accounted for 26 percent of the disc's overall sales. The album charted high in various other countries and was eventually certified gold in the United Kingdom, however,
Pretty. Odd. received relatively disappointing sales in the face of its predecessor.
Pretty. Odd. was, however, critically acclaimed in contrast to
Fever: Barry Walters of
Spin called Panic's debut album "embarrassing" while regarding the new record as "[daring] to be optimistically beautiful at a time when sadness and ugliness might have won them easier credibility." -inspired album
Pretty. Odd. The band announced plans to headline the 2008
Honda Civic Tour in January 2008, which took up the majority of early touring for the album. Motion City Soundtrack,
the Hush Sound and
Phantom Planet opened for the tour, which performed across North America from April 10 to July 14, 2008 . Throughout October and November 2008, the band toured with
Dashboard Confessional and
the Cab on the
Rock Band Live Tour promoting the video game
Rock Band 2. As expected and predicted by several music publications, the band adopted a very different style for the touring in support of
Pretty. Odd., in contrast to the dark,
circus-themed elements of the band's previous stage shows. Each show contained "woodsy set pieces, projections of
flora and
fauna, and mic stands wrapped in lights and flowers," and each band member dressed in a vest. An accompanying DVD contains photos from the tour, each music video from the album as well as behind-the-scenes footage of the videos and the tour, the short film
Panic! at the Disco In: American Valley, and the documentary feature based on the tour, ''All in a Day's''.
Pretty. Odd. touring was also defined by a larger effort to remain
environmentally conscious. On the tour, the band worked with two non-profit eco organizations: Reverb, which facilitates environmentally friendly touring; and Global Inheritance, which seeks to inspire more eco-activism. In a 2008 interview, Ross revealed that the band began traveling on a biodiesel bus, re-using plastics, and recycling more backstage. The band went as far as to print tour booklets on recycled paper, with soy ink, and organize an "eco-contest", in which profits from the tour went straight to environmental organizations. However, on July 6, 2009, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker announced via the band's official website that the two were leaving the band. Walker and Ross went on to form
The Young Veins, which only released one album,
Take a Vacation!. The news asserted that both tour plans with
Blink-182 in August 2009 and new album production "will continue as previously announced." The following day,
Alternative Press broke the news that "
New Perspective", the first song recorded without Ross and Walker, would debut the following month on radio and as a part of the soundtrack to the film ''
Jennifer's Body. On July 10, 2009, Alternative Press'' also reported that the band had regained the exclamation point, becoming, once again, Panic! at the Disco. "New Perspective" was released on July 28, 2009. Former guitarist of pop rock band
the Cab,
Ian Crawford and
Dallon Weekes, frontman of indie rock band the Brobecks, filled in for Ross and Walker on tour during the
Blink-182 Summer Tour in August 2009. The band re-entered the studio in early 2010 and spent much of the year recording the group's third studio album. Although Weekes did not perform on the upcoming album, he was responsible for the conceptualization of the album's cover art and was also featured on the album cover, masked and standing in the background behind Smith and Urie. On January 18, 2011, the band revealed that an album titled
Vices & Virtues would officially be released on March 22, 2011. The album was produced by
Butch Walker and
John Feldmann. The record's first single, "
The Ballad of Mona Lisa", was released digitally on February 1, 2011,
Vices & Virtues was officially released on March 22, 2011, to relatively positive critical reviews. The band began touring in support of the album, christened the
Vices & Virtues Tour, in earnest beginning in February 2011. The tour has sported the same electric, over-the-top theatricality the band was known for during the
Fever era. "I really miss wearing costumes and makeup," Urie told
Spin. "I love throwing a big production. I've recently been reading about
Tesla coils and I'm trying to figure out how I can get one that sits on the stage and shoots sparks without hurting anybody." The group was scheduled to play the Australian Soundwave Revolution festival in September/October but the festival was canceled. The band performed at the Counter-Revolution mini-festival, the festival that took its place. Panic! at the Disco contributed a new song, "Mercenary", to
the soundtrack for the video game
Batman: Arkham City. After the
Vices & Virtues tour cycle, Urie, Smith, and Weekes began writing and preparing for a fourth album. During the recording of the album, touring guitarist Ian Crawford, who joined the band in 2009 after the departure of Ryan Ross and Jon Walker, left the band citing his desire to make "real, genuine" music. On July 15, 2013, the album was announced as
Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!, with a scheduled release date of October 8, 2013. The first single, "
Miss Jackson", was released on July 15, 2013, along with its music video to promote the album. With Spencer's leave of absence, Dan Pawlovich of the band
Valencia filled in on tour. In an interview with
Pure Fresh on September 23, 2014, Urie stated that he had already thought about ideas on the fifth studio album; however, he was not sure if it would be a Panic! at the Disco album, or a solo album. Urie also stated there were no plans for Smith to return to the band.
2015–2019: Transition to solo project, Death of a Bachelor and Pray for the Wicked On April 2, 2015, Smith announced that he had officially left the band. That same month, Urie revealed in an interview with
Kerrang! that he was working on new material for the band's fifth studio album. On April 20, 2015, Urie released "
Hallelujah" as a single without any previous formal announcements. It debuted on the
Billboard Hot 100 at No. 40, the band's second highest ever after "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". The band performed at the
KROQ Weenie Roast on May 16, 2015. On September 1, 2015, another song from the fifth studio album, "
Death of a Bachelor", premiered on an
Apple Music broadcast hosted by Pete Wentz. The second single, "
Victorious" was released at the end of the month. On October 22, 2015, through the band's official Facebook page, Urie announced the new album as
Death of a Bachelor with a scheduled release date of January 15, 2016. It is the first album written and composed by Urie with a team of writers, as the status of Weekes was announced to have changed from an official member to that of a touring musician once again. Weekes' status was rumored during the promotion of
Death of a Bachelor that he was no longer an official member. The third single "
Emperor's New Clothes" was released on the same day, along with the official music video. On December 31, 2015, the band released "
Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time". The band co-headlined the
Weezer & Panic! at the Disco Summer Tour 2016 with
Weezer from June to August 2016. The band released a cover of
Queen's "
Bohemian Rhapsody" in August 2016, on the
Suicide Squad soundtrack album. On September 22, 2016, the band released the music video for "LA Devotee". With the release came the announcement of the
Death of a Bachelor Tour in 2017.
MisterWives and
Saint Motel were announced as the opening acts. In a December 2016 interview, Urie said that he hoped to make a music video for every song on the album
Death of a Bachelor. On December 15, 2017, the band released their fourth live album ''
All My Friends We're Glorious: Death of a Bachelor Tour Live. It was released as a limited-edition double-vinyl and digital download. Five days later, the band released a non-album Christmas song titled "Feels Like Christmas". On December 27, bassist Dallon Weekes officially announced his departure from Panic! at the Disco after over eight years of performing in the band, subsequently shifting his focus as the frontman of the band (now solo project) I Dont Know How but They Found Me. On March 19, 2018, the band played a surprise show in Cleveland, Ohio, with new touring bassist, Nicole Row. On March 21, 2018, the band released two new songs "Say Amen (Saturday Night)" and "(Fuck A) Silver Lining". At the same time, the band also announced the Pray for the Wicked Tour and a new album called Pray for the Wicked''. On June 7, 2018, the band performed at the fountains at the
Bellagio prior to game five of the
Stanley Cup Final. The performance is said to have had sentimental value to the band as they took to the stage in their hometown. On August 27, 2018, the band dropped the music video for the single "
High Hopes". In fall of 2018, "High Hopes" became the highest placing single from the band, becoming number 4 on the
Billboard Hot 100. On September 22, 2018, the band announced that longtime touring guitarist Kenneth Harris would be dismissed following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct involving underage fans. Harris' replacement was announced to be former
Sparks the Rescue guitarist Mike Naran on October 6, 2018. The band's version of the song "
Into the Unknown" is featured on
the soundtrack to the 2019 film
Frozen II and in the end credits. The song appears in the film as performed by
Idina Menzel. On May 14, 2022, the band set up a website called "Shut Up and Go to Bed" to tease new music. On May 29, it was announced that Panic would be returning with a new single called "
Viva Las Vengeance" on June 1, alongside hints of future material. With the release of the music video, it was announced that Panic's seventh album would also be titled
Viva Las Vengeance with a release date of August 19, and future tour dates in fall 2022. On July 20, 2022, the second single "Middle Of A Breakup" was released. On August 5, 2022, the third single "Local God" was released. On August 16, 2022, the fourth single "Don't Let the Light Go Out" was released. On the same day as the album release, a music video for the song "Sad Clown" was released. On November 15, 2022, it was announced that the Chicago show from the Viva Las Vengeance Tour would be streamed as a digital concert on December 7 and 8, 2022, under the name
Everybody Needs a Place to Go: An Evening with Panic! at the Disco. On October 28, 2022, the band re-released their 2016 song "
House of Memories" along with its slowed-down and sped-up versions, after the song went viral on
TikTok. On January 24, 2023, Urie revealed that he and his wife were expecting a child together, and that he would be discontinuing Panic! at the Disco in order to focus on his family, following the conclusion of the
Viva Las Vengeance Tour on March 10 in Manchester, England.
Post-disbandment activity (2024–present) On October 29, 2024, it was announced that Panic! would return to perform as one of the headliners of the
When We Were Young festival on October 18 and 19, 2025, to perform ''A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
in its entirety. On both nights of the festival, Smith briefly joined Panic! on stage to play drums for a second, closing performance of "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". The day after the festival, details were revealed for a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
, along with the 2006 live album Live in Denver'' being released on vinyl and streaming for the first time. On February 1, 2025, former members
Ryan Ross and
Dallon Weekes performed together for the first time at a
Phantom Planet benefit concert for the Los Angeles fires, performing the band's song "
Do the Panic". ==Musical style and influences==