Panic At The Disco Goes Coast-to-Coast in Eco-Friendly Fast Lane as Headliner of 8th Annual Honda Civic Tour

Panic At The Disco Goes Coast-to-Coast in Eco-Friendly Fast Lane as Headliner of 8th Annual Honda Civic Tour

Honda Civic Hybrid Customized by Panic At The Disco to Be Won by Lucky Fan

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Start your engines as Panic At The Disco leaves Sin City for center stage as headliner for the 8th annual Honda Civic Tour. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. announced the participation of the platinum-selling, MTV Video Music Award-winning band today at the company's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif. The event featured the unveiling of the Panic At The Disco customized and autographed Honda Civic Hybrid and a surprise performance by the Las Vegas-bred quartet which was hosted by Honda Civic Tour alum Mark Hoppus of +44 and Blink-182.

(Photo:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080110/NYTH022 )

The Honda Civic Tour (HCT) continues to provide fans with a unique, interactive concert experience, allowing them to get up close and personal with their favorite bands. Panic At The Disco (PATD) will take the stage with material from their highly anticipated sophomore album, PRETTY. ODD., the follow-up to 2005's A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. Advance word on the new disc promises songs particularly well suited to live performance, which Honda Civic Tour fans will be the first to confirm as the band brings their dynamic stage show to intimate venues throughout the U.S. The tour kicks off April 10th in San Francisco at the Warfield Theatre and will close with an unforgettable performance at The Honda Center in Anaheim, Ca. on June 14th. Full schedule, on-sale dates and support acts will be announced at a later date.

Over the past seven years nearly two million fans have enjoyed the HCT experience, and the tour has developed a reputation for putting fans first as an entertainment brand backed by Honda. The eighth year demonstrates the consistent annual commitment Honda has made to developing and supporting emerging music artists. This commitment will be demonstrated yet again with tickets priced for maximum affordability.

Said Panic At The Disco lead singer Brendon Urie: "We're taking advice from Fall Out Boy, who headlined the Honda Civic Tour last year, on how to make this year's tour even better. Those guys set the bar pretty high, but we're really looking forward to hitting the road again and are definitely up for the challenge." Guitarist Ryan Ross commented: "We were just kids when we went to see Good Charlotte and New Found Glory in Vegas during the '03 Civic Tour so it's pretty amazing to now be headlining."

Beyond great music, this year's Honda Civic Tour is also deploying an environmental action plan. In the tradition of the past three Honda Civic Tours featuring the Civic Hybrid, the '08 trek is aimed at effecting positive environmental change. New for this year, nonprofits Reverb (a leader in the "greening" of concert tours) and Global Inheritance (a champion of progressive causes with a tight connection to youth subcultures) have been selected by Panic At The Disco. They are collaborating to engage audiences in fun, fan-friendly, interactive exhibits during the tour. Additionally, this collective will make a substantial contribution to a cause to be determined by the end of the tour. The concept chosen will be selected on its merit to make a lasting impact on the generation-defining environmental movement in the name of the 2008 Honda Civic Tour with Panic At The Disco.

Tickets will equal action. For every Honda Civic Tour Panic At The Disco ticket purchased, $1 will go into a fund designated for non-profit tour partners Reverb and Global Inheritance. Being green does not get any easier than buying a ticket to the '08 Honda Civic Tour!

In keeping with one of the Honda Civic Tour's most exciting traditions, Panic At The Disco has designed a special, one-of-a-kind Honda Civic Hybrid to be showcased at each stop of the tour. Fans will have the opportunity throughout the tour to enter to win this green machine, which has been autographed by the band, making it the ultimate in HCT memorabilia. The PATD-personalized hybrid was unveiled to select Honda associates and the press at today's announcement event.

The most up to date HCT news can be found at www.hondacivictour.com, and, on Jan. 30, beginning at 10 a.m. PST fans can register online to participate in a ticket pre-sale.

Panic At The Disco's platinum-selling debut, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen), spawned multiple radio and video hits, among them "I Write Sins Not Tragedies," which went to #1 on MTV and was named Video of the Year at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. The band has previously been featured on the covers of Rolling Stone, Spin and Alternative Press and is nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Boxed or Limited Edition Package" for A Fever You Can't Sweat Out at the upcoming awards ceremony taking place on February 10th.

Past Honda Civic Tour headliners include The Black Eyed Peas, Blink-182, Everclear, Incubus, Good Charlotte and New Found Glory, Dashboard Confessional, Maroon 5, and most recently, Fall Out Boy.

Produced by Marketing Factory, the Honda Civic Tour brings innovation and environmental consciousness to the masses by combining the hottest in automotive technology with the hottest in music.

For more information, visit the official Honda Civic Tour website at www.hondacivictour.com.

About Honda

Honda, the most fuel efficient car company in America, began operations in the U.S. in 1959 with the establishment of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Honda's first overseas subsidiary. Honda now employs more than 35,000 associates in North America. Honda currently has 14 manufacturing plants in North America, producing automobiles, light trucks, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, personal watercraft, engines, transmissions and other components. Nearly 8 of 10 Honda and Acura cars and light trucks sold in America are assembled in North America as well. Many of these products are now designed and developed at one of Honda's U.S. R&D centers. Honda annually purchases more than $17 billion in parts and materials from suppliers in North America.

About Reverb

Reverb is a nonprofit organization helping make concert tours and the music industry safer for the environment. Aside from "greening" tours by fueling vehicles with biodiesel and promoting other earth-friendly products and practices, Reverb engages fans with its traveling, interactive Eco- Village, home to a fan carbon-offset program, green contests and educational outreach.

About Global Inheritance

Global Inheritance is a 501c3 nonprofit organization working to reinvent activism for today's youth. Global Inheritance's Tour de Panic allows Honda Civic Tour audiences to power their cell phones by riding bikes equipped with the latest in eco-efficient technology. By focusing on the power of creativity to communicate and push for progressive social change, Global Inheritance's programs are able to educate and empower the individual.

Photo: NewsCom:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080110/NYTH022
AP Archive:

http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Honda Civic Tour

CONTACT: Fran Curtis, +1-212-445-8423, fcurtis@rogersandcowan.com,
Lauren Ceradini, +1-212-445-8418, lceradini@rogersandcowan.com, or Heather
Lewandoski, +1-310-854-8147, hlewandoski@rogersandcowan.com, all of Rogers &
Cowan for Honda Civic Tour; Christina Kotsamanidis for Panic At The Disco,
+1-212-707-2241, Christina.Kotsamanidis@atlanticrecords.com; Chris Martin of
American Honda Motor Co., Inc., +1-310-783-3164, chris_martin@ahm.honda.com;
Matthew Berkson of Marketing Factory, +1-310-314-8008,
matt@marketingfactory.com; Brian Allenby of Reverb, +1-207-221-6553,
brian@reverbrock.org; Eric Ritz of Global Inheritance, +1-323-854-7061,
ericritz@globalinheritance.org

Web site:

http://www.hondacivictour.com/

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