Panic! At the Disco made sure the evening didn’t grow dimmer with its performance of “Don’t Let the Light Go Out” at the 2022 MTV VMAs on Sunday (Aug. 28).
The black-and-white display started off with a sultry guitar intro before frontman Brendon Urie stepped into the picture with his emotive singing of the band’s single from its seventh studio album Viva Las Vengeance, which was released on Aug. 19. While Urie stared intensely into the camera, its 360-degree rotation revealed that the audience at New Jersey’s Prudential Center was lighting up the venue with their own devices, and the vintage car on stage was shining its headlights on them.
“Who’s gonna drive me home tonight?/ Who’s going to argue ’til they win the fight?/ You’re the only one that knows how to operate/ My heavy machinery/ Don’t let the light go out/ Don’t let the light go out/ Don’t let the light go out/ Don’t let the light go out,” Urie pleaded in the chorus as he took center stage, the car’s headlights glowing on either side of him.
An epic guitar solo on top of the car further drove home the song’s point about not wanting to let go of a loved one who might be at the end of their journey. But his despair was met with sparklers illuminating the stage and fake embers glowing on the screen. It’s safe to say the light never went out.
Panic! At the Disco was nominated at the 2022 VMAs for best alternative with “Viva Las Vengeance” this evening, but lost to Måneskin’s “I Wanna Be Your Slave.”
