Despite retro leanings, Panic at the Disco not your parents' band

Panic at the Disco front man Brendon Urie played at the Bank of America Pavilion last night. The group's enthusiasm won the crowd over. (Evan Richman/Globe Staff)

The kids are all right, and so are the parental units who retroactively earned their breakfasts-in-bed by spending Mother's Day evening with Panic at the Disco.

Retro chic has wormed its way into that last bastion of youthful solidarity, punk-pop, and there was something for everyone (wild-eyed girls and chaperones alike) on the Honda Civic Tour, which might as well be called the Fueled by Ramen tour after the teen-oriented indie label that three of the four groups call home.

"California," Phantom Planet's perfect, bittersweet anthem, lassoed a vivid Golden State vibe that transported parents to their gloriously misspent folk-rock years, and their kids to "The O.C." The Hush Sound anchors its smart pop in the stomping, piano-driven tradition spearheaded by Elton John and revitalized by Ben Folds; their set was endlessly jaunty and sweet. And Motion City Soundtrack is blink-182 with table manners - there was nothing snotty or frantic about their melodious hard-pop.

"My dad is, like, dancing," a girl in the bathroom marveled after MCS's set, and he may well have enjoyed a flashback or two during Panic at the Disco. The young lads from Las Vegas, who became instant 'tween heartthrobs in 2005 with their quirky, punky debut, have since discovered the Beatles. The group's second album, this year's aptly titled "Pretty. Odd," is the wildly aspirational sound of emo upstarts in slavish thrall to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

In concert, Panic at the Disco split the difference between the clever, insistent warble of "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" and the kaleidoscopic Brit-pop of "Pretty. Odd." They wound up treading a middle ground, which is not a place this band belongs. The old songs, among them "Camisado" and "Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off," weren't as obnoxious and theatrical as they should have been. And new songs like "Nine in the Afternoon," "She's a Handsome Woman," and "Behind the Sea" - on disc filled with all manner of horn-stoked finery and string-fueled filigree - were just plain . . . plain.

What saved the show from the unsavory limbo of a split personality were endless quantities of good cheer. A genuinely enthused rock group is a persuasive rock group, not that this crowd needed much encouragement. When a band member posed the question "Do you like jazz?" the audience responded in the ear-shattering affirmative, suggesting that whatever Panic at the Disco asks of its young audience, the answer is yes.

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com. For more on music visit boston.com/ae/music/globe.