By the time pop-rock band Panic! At The Disco wound down to cover Queen's epic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” frontman Brendon Urie was pretty much just showing off.

Let's face it, that song has been the death of many a vocalist, a nearly unconquerable mountain which demands both an immense vocal range and formidable dexterity. Even doing it in a studio — as Panic did for the “Suicide Squad” movie soundtrack — is daring. Doing it live is harder, and executing the song flawlessly is nigh-impossible for anyone other than Freddie Mercury or Adam Lambert. And yet, Urie pulled the trick off, to the overwhelming approval of the sold-out DCU Center's Saturday night, proving that as impressive as the show that had come beforehand had been — and it was impressive — he was only showing a fraction of his potential.

Following high-spirited and energetic opening sets from the bands Saint Motel and Misterwives, Panic launched into a frenetic and assertive set that highlighted many of the band's most well-known songs, particularly tracks from the recent album, “Death Of A Bachelor.” Opening with the party anthem, “Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time,” Urie, particularly, was a tightly coiled spring, near-explosive with energy. The band maintained that high-volume, high-tension propulsion for nearly half the set, rocking through fan-favorites such as “LA Devotee,” “Ready To Go (Get Me Out of My Mind),” “Golden Days,” “Vegas Lights” and “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage” with a freight-train recklessness, and the youthful audience showed no signs of weariness at the breathless pace.

Urie — currently the only permanent member of the band — was clearly the focal point of attention on stage, but longtime Panic bassist Dallon Weekes, guitarist Kenneth Harris, drummer Dan Pawlovich and horn section Jesse Molloy, Erm Navarro and Chris Bautista built a captivating musical tableaux, sometimes highlighting Urie's vocals, sometimes bringing him down to earth by grounding him in the white-knuckle frenzy of high-octane rock 'n' roll. Watching the interaction was a fascinating study in contrasts: When Urie was constrained by the music, the intensity and pace was blistering, when the instrumentation receded, the intensity relaxed and his vocals were allowed to shine. Striking a balance between those two states was a feat all by itself, and it demonstrated how conscious the band was of the set's tone and texture.

Still, as blistering as the first half of the set was, the second half was more interesting. As the band left the stage and an excerpt from a music video was projected on the screen, a piano rose from the floor in the back of the house, where Urie played the melancholy “This is Gospel” solo. The song, written for former bandmate Spencer Smith's struggles with addiction, is heartfelt and deeply affecting, but it also points to one of the band's paradoxes. Panic's lyrics straddle the weird line between pop and a more adult, literary sensibility. When Urie sings, “This is gospel for the vagabonds, never-do-wells and insufferable bastards/Confessing their apostasies/led away by imperfect impostors,” it's a line that would resonate differently with a teenager than it might adults who've had to wrestle with their own or others' addictions, and those addictions' consequences. That the song works on both levels is impressive, and while it's particularly striking here, it's a balancing act that's evident throughout the band's catalog.

Urie worked his way back to the main stage by cutting through the crowd while singing the title song to “Death of a Bachelor” — much to his fans' delight. Afterward, he detoured through an impressive cover of Billy Joel's “Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)” and a return to the rock whirlwind of song such as “Emperor's New Clothes,” “Nicotine,” “Crazy = Genius,” “”Let's Kill Tonight” and the surprisingly tender meditation on sexuality, “Girls/Girls/Boys,” which had the audience light up their cell phones in a rainbow of light, which was an impressive sight, after which Urie praised the crowd and told them, “This generation's going to change the (expletive) world.”

The latter half also featured a jaw-dropping drum solo from Urie, playing over recordings of Bruno Mars' "24K Magic" and Rihanna's "(expletive) Better Have My Money." Really, if the first half of the show was about riling the crowd up, the second half was about showing what they could do, culminating in "Bohemian Rhapsody," which was a show-stopper as impressive as any in recent memory.

Riding off the song's energy, the band plowed into one of Panic's earliest hits, the anger-fueled vignette of infidelity and gossip, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” before ending with the anthemic, “Victorious.”

“Oh we gotta turn up the crazy,” sings Urie, “Livin' like a washed up celebrity/Shooting fireworks like it's the Fourth of July/Until we feel alright ...”

The lights flash, a pyrotechnic display goes off and the crowd is showered in confetti. Like a lot of Panic's songbook, it's a half-earnest, half-ironic reflection on rock stardom, but for that moment, for that screaming young audience, that glamor and power is undeniably real, and as Freddie Mercury once sang, “it's a kind of magic.”

Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor.