Panic! At The Disco Cover Weezer Hit “Say It Ain’t So”
Images via SiriusXM Hits 1
Panic! At The Disco performed at SiriusXM Hits 1 yesterday and, along with the Pray for the Wicked leading singles “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” and “High Hopes,” the band (Brendon Urie with his backing musicians) covered Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” off the self-titled Blue Album from 1994.
In the SiriusXM setting all three songs were stripped back somewhat and saw Urie leading on an acoustic guitar. While the thumping chorus of “Say It Ain’t So” was toned down, Urie showed off his range and Broadway-level lungs (which earned him a role in Kinky Boots) as he belted the high notes and occasionally switched into falsetto. Although that was already impressive, “Say Amen” features an especially killer falsetto (listen here around 2:50).
This isn’t Panic! At The Disco’s first interaction with Weezer, either. The two bands toured together in the summer of 2016 supporting Death of a Bachelor and Weezer the White Album, respectively. Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo also co-wrote on “Victorious”—a rock radio smash off Death of a Bachelor. Years prior, around the Vice and Virtues era of Panic! (approximately 2011), Urie and founding band member Spencer Smith first wrote with Cuomo—experiences Urie told Billboard are surreal because Cuomo is one of his heroes.
Panic! At The Disco’s two most recent records, Pray for the Wicked and Death of a Bachelor, both debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1. Posted yesterday on Twitter, fans have an opportunity to engage with Pray for the Wicked on the Panic! “museum” website. It features different galleries including one called “Devil’s Key” where fans can enter for a chance to win a trip to the band’s hometown Las Vegas show on Aug. 18 and another titled “This Calls for a Toast” which hosts a selection of drink recipes (with suggestions for making them into cocktails).