Panic! At the Disco, O2 Academy Brixton - review - Music - Arts

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Instead, frontman Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith returned with Vices & Virtues - the group's third, and arguably best, album to date. This gave last night's show in south London, the final stop on an eight-date UK tour, the feel of a fresh start rather than the bitter end.

Treating the crowd - pogoing teenagers at the front, parental chaperones at the back - to a high-intensity, two-hour show, the Americans came armed with more hits and hooks than a 12-round boxing match. Without reinventing the wheel, they were also happy to experiment: cover versions of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and The Darkness' I Believe In A Thing Called Love were served up next to their own emo rock numbers.

Dressed in a shirt and waistcoat, Urie invited comparisons with The Killers' Brandon Flowers, another Las Vegan who understands the importance of spectacle. Whether back-flipping off stage, thwacking a floor tom or plucking an acoustic guitar on a solo rendition of Always, he provided the band with a magnetic focal point.

Unfortunately he also felt compelled to regale us with some Oedipal between-song banter, which was more bizarre than funny.

But if Panic! remain slightly irritating (and, my word, they do) they were also undeniably entertaining. I Write Sins Not Tragedies - nonsensical title and all - was a riotous slice of baroque pop from a band who are in this for the long haul. Grudgingly good.

Panic! At The Disco