Unveiling a new bassist is one thing. Dropping two new singles, announcing an album, and promoting a concert tour is quite another.
Everyone’s favourite pop slash punk slash rock band Panic! at the Disco overwhelmed fans with a flood of good news earlier this week, teasing loyal Panic! devotees by creating advertisements forecasting the arrival of “Worship Wednesday.”
WORSHIP WEDNESDAY? WHAT yhe FUCK pic.twitter.com/9n5NiIkbc9
— jossie (@brendonutella) March 19, 2018
Is directly associating the word “worship” with your own band a little over-the-top? Sure. But Panic! delivered on its lofty but cryptic promise by gifting fans with two brand-new singles, “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” and “(Fuck A) Silver Lining.” The driving, anger-fueled “Silver Lining” (in which lead singer Brendon Urie name-drops Beyoncé and references Destiny’s Child) currently only has an audio version. “Say Amen,” on the other hand, already has its very own, very violent corresponding music video.
As several eagle-eyed fans have already pointed out, the “Say Amen” video serves as a prequel to 2013’s endlessly memeable “This Is Gospel” music video and 2015’s “Emperor’s New Clothes” music video (Spoiler Alert: “Say Amen” explains why Urie is unconscious at the start of “This Is Gospel”). We’re not sure if Urie had always planned to create a five-year overarching music video trilogy or if the idea to expand upon the “This Is Gospel” saga only popped into his head recently, but either way we’re impressed.
Panic! also set aside time during “Worship Wednesday” to announce the imminent arrival of Pray for the Wicked, the band’s sixth studio album and its first since 2016’s Death of a Bachelor. Pray for the Wicked, which was produced by long-time Panic! collaborator Jake Sinclair, is set to drop on June 22 and will feature “Say Amen,” “Silver Lining,” and nine other tracks including one called “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” and another (potentially Footloose-inspired) tune called “Dancing’s Not A Crime.”
In a press release, Urie explains that he was “revved up” after returning to L.A. following a short stint as Charlie Price in Cindy Lauper’s Kinky Boots and that he ended up writing Pray for the Wicked as a way to collect his thoughts about the experience. He goes on to call Pray For The Wicked a “thank you” to fans and “the most fun I’ve ever had making album,” and based on what we’ve seen and heard so far that sense of fun will most definitely be palpable.
And that’s not all. Panic! is also going on tour this summer to promote the album, where the band will get a chance to show off its aforementioned new bassist, long-time musician Nicole Row, to a wider audience. Jersey pop-rock act A R I Z O N A and singer-songwriter Hayley Kiyoko, who’s about to drop her first studio album, will open for the band.
Panic! at the Disco’s Pray for the Wicked Tour hits Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on July 22 and Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on August 11. Check out the band’s full list of tour dates below.
July 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
July 13 – Indianapolis, IN @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse
July 14 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
July 15 – Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
July 17 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
July 18 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
July 20 – Uniondale, NY @ NYCB Live: Nassau Coliseum
July 21 – Baltimore, MD @ Royal Farms Arena
July 22 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
July 24 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
July 25 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
July 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
July 28 – Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
July 29 – Duluth, GA @ Infinite Energy Center
July 31 – Sunrise, FL @ BB&T Center
August 1 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
August 3 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
August 4 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
August 5 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
August 7 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
August 8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena
August 10 – Seattle, WA @ KeyArena
August 11 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
August 12 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center at the Rose Quarter
August 14 – San Jose, CA @ SAP Center
August 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center
August 17 – Glendale, AZ @ Gila River Arena
August 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
