Fall Out Boy
June 16, 2006
Sound Advice Amphitheatre
The first time I saw Fall Out Boy they were opening up for Mest at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale.
Since then, they have sold millions of albums worldwide, been on the cover of Rolling Stone, and headlined sold out arena tours. It makes sense, then, that they would headline this year’s Honda Civic Tour, which is arguably this summer’s biggest rock show.
The openers included Fall Out Boy’s good friends Cobra Starship and The Academy Is… , who both put on an entertaining show. Paul Wall was thrown in the middle of a few pop-punk acts, and while he seemed fine with asking a crowd of mostly underage girls if they “don’t got no STDS,” it was obvious that he was terribly out of place. Lastly, Plus 44, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker’s new band, played a fun, energetic set, though most of the audience was unresponsive, possibly because they are too young to actually remember Blink-182.
When Fall Out Boy finally took the stage, they popped up from under the stage on devices called Toasters, much in the same way a Pop-Tart gets flung out from a toaster. Their entire show was a big production, complete with flashing lights in the shape of FOB, pyrotechnics, and a slideshow that played on the large screen behind them. The slideshow included animated interpretations of lyrics, pictures of the band, and even just lyrics themselves, in case the audience needed help with them.
The band played one of the best shows I’ve ever seen them play (I’ve seen them 14 times), though all the special effects detracted a bit from their performance. Nevertheless, their opener, “Thriller,” a fast-paced fan-anthem, set the pace for the rest of the evening. Although the 90-minute set included slower numbers, such as “I'm Like a Lawyer,” the band was best when they played their harder songs, such as my favorite, “Tell That Mick.” While he’s not the band’s front man, lead-singer Patrick Stump was by far the most impressive, especially during a piano-rendition of “Golden.”
Fall Out Boy put on the biggest show possible, and although they did it well, I couldn’t help but wish they were still playing small shows to a couple hundred kids, instead of to thousands of people at Sound Advice Amphitheatre. To a first time concert-goer, the show was probably mind-blowing, and was an initiation, the same way my first Blink-182 show was for me. But to a jaded, seasoned punk-rock kid like myself, it felt too impersonal, and all the parents with their young children served as a reminder that the band that was once my best-kept secret was no longer mine. -- Lauren Papiernik
