Hail to the Emo-pop-punkers!  FALL out BOY headlined the recent MTVU Movies and Music Festival at Merriwether Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD (USA) recently to throngs of fans. 

 The event also featured punk-pop bands Hey Monday, Cobra Starship, and All Time Low, as well as rapper 50 Cent (replacing Metro Station for a handful of tour dates).

Concert Review A few transient sun showers in the early afternoon did not put a damper on the event, and the weather throughout late afternoon was ideal for an outdoor concert: sunny and hot. The diversity of fans also made for a people-watching spectacular: your average upper-middle class teenagers sporting recently purchased concert T-shirts were as numerous as blue-and-red-haired Japanese punk-rockers, forty-something mothers sporting toddlers, openly gay twenty-somethings, and the swarms of 20-30 year-olds whose appearance defied categorization. There was also a surprising contingent of token red-necks (who knew red-necks liked emo-pop-punk?!) including a fifty-plus biker chick who was probably a babe in her day, sporting a tank top emblazoned with “my inner child is a nasty little bitch.” The diversity of the audience was a testimony to the universal appeal of well-crafted, witty, sarcastic, angst-ridden lyrics set to catchy rock hooks. Although I’ve been a FALL out BOY fan for a few years and own several albums, this was my first FoB show. I was pleasantly surprised to learn the band engages in a very fan friendly practice: one of the roadies takes pictures during the show, hands them to band members to autograph, and then distributes them to fans in attendance.

FALL out BOY opened their show in costume wearing spotless, well-pressed business suits and wigs of neatly combed hair, topped off by face makeup that made the band members appear bruised and bloody. There were also a handful of crew members dressed as Chicago SWAT police stationed at the edge of the stage. I never quite understood the artistry of the costumes, makeup, and SWAT police, but Wentz later commented that they had decided to give the audience a tutorial on “how to fit into corporate America” instead of the planned rock concert. Wentz closed his explanation of the unusual choice of attire by saying the lesson was to “Set your clocks early because you know I’m always late.” The crowd cheered in response to the reference of a lyric from “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’” as the band performed a feverish rendition of the song. During the number, lights on the faces of the guitars flashed and swirled in addition to a myriad of stage lights, creating a fantastic display of light and dark. After the end of the song, FALL out BOY briefly left the stage while the stage video screens showed movies of skyscrapers being demolished and a recording of “America’s Suitehearts,”  a song from FOB’s most recent album, played softly. Within two minutes, the band returned in more traditional rock-star attire – tight jeans, t-shirts and bomber-type jackets, to finish their set.

As the set continued, it was clear the band was in a groove, laying down an entrancing musical performance which was accompanied by a mesmerizing light show. Even Mother Nature got caught up in the fever of the performance as she laid down her own spectacle, hurling intermittent lightning bolts that split the sky – sometimes in perfect synchronization with the stage light show. The effect lent a surreal air to the concert performance. FoB’s set continued with several more songs including the more popular “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and “I Don’t Care.” Wentz introduced or gave a little insight into about half of the songs played, including “Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet” which Wentz claimed was a song about the kind of “real love that follows you to hell, sees how hot it is, takes their clothes off, and has a dance party!” I’m still not sure that adds any light to the song lyrics, but thousands of love-crazed screaming women in the audience clearly approved of this statement. FALL out BOY slowed things down a bit by playing “America’s Sweethearts,” and toward the end of their set, picked up the pace again with a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Beat it.”  Stump and Wentz led a crowd sing-along to “What a Catch, Donnie” before closing the evening with “Thanks for the Memories” which ran directly into “Saturday.”

Wentz, Trohman, and Hurley put on passionate performances. Stump is a strong vocalist who conveyed ample emotion in his tone, but he was lacking stage presence. He did little more than stand at his microphone and sing, albeit very well. In the meantime, Hurley was a madman thrashing around while beating his drum set.  Trohman worked the stage dancing with leaps and spins, and Wentz conveyed sufficient emotional angst/frustration during his writhing, gyrating, spinning, and jumping between fits of screaming into the microphone. Unfortunately, the venue chose to display a mostly stationary Stump on the big screen about 80-90% of the time, leaving me feeling robbed of the complete spectacle.

While FALL out BOY was clearly the main draw of the festival, the three pop-punk opening acts did a incredible job building the energy before FoB’s performance. The bands strung together three strong, energetic sets as the sun sank lower on the horizon. Although I enjoyed Cobra Starship’s irreverent, 1980’s-esque neon flair most, All Time Low was clearly the crowd favorite (perhaps because they are from nearby Lutherville-Timonium, MD). The energy was high when recent tour addition, 50 Cent took the stage. Unfortunately, they put on a sub-par performance, creating a low point for the evening. It’s not that I dislike rap, I just don’t like poorly performed rap with no danceable hook. 50 Cent and his two male back ups mumbled into their microphones making nearly every word unintelligible while using one single inane rapper arm swing over and over, and over. Rap music is all about the word play and lyrics, so if you can’t understand it, what’s the point? Although 50 Cent has several well-known hits with danceable hooks that I actually like, he cut short the performances of those songs in favor of performing less catchy/danceable new raps, in order to promote his upcoming album. I wouldn’t recommend buying it. In my opinion, 50’s painful performance drained the energy that the three preceeding acts had worked so hard to build.

Another minor annoyance throughout the festival was the repeated appearance of Cassadee Pope of Hey Monday, during the performances of Cobra Starship, All Time Low, and FALL out BOY. Yes, boys and men under the age of sixty-five, Cassadee is really easy on the eyes! Sure, she can sing. And although I’m all for GRRRRL power and would love to support a female rocker, I came to see Wentz, Trohman, Hurley and Stump performing FALL out BOY songs - not the Cassadee Pope show. That being said, it is quite common for performers from all the opening acts to lend guest appearances to each other’s sets, which worked most of the time and seemed to be well received, judging by audience cheers.

While FALL out BOY’s performance seemed to have all the necessary elements of an amazing concert experience: perfect weather, surreal stage theatrics, well performed cover songs, an obligatory audience sing-along, and solidly performed rock music, it lacked that je ne sais quoi that makes performances legendary. Despite putting on a good show, FALL out BOY failed to connect or create a Folie à Deux (“a maddness shared by two,” a literal translation of FoB’s most recent album title). Still, my lingering disappointment that the set was just barely an hour long is telling. I enjoyed the show enough to wish for more.  ♦
 

 All photos courtesy of falloutboyrock.com

Julie is not a member of Six String Planet. A friend of Cliff's, she wrote this review at his request. We'll make sure she see's all comments.

Comments (3)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

kingsrv said:

... Damn Julie, thats some fine writing there. Something out of Rolling Stone Magazine. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your experience with us. Future contributions will surely be welcome.

May 17, 2009

Mitch said:

... wow julie...awesome journalistic skills....and I thought you were just a Pirate!!...lol...still not a huge emo fan...but you put together an article that held my interest in a subject i don't care much about...that's great journalisum...thank you for doing that for SSP...it's greatly appriecated...I can't help but think how much I would like to read something by you on a subject closer to the heart...great job

May 26, 2009

rockin ron said:

... hey , i know a 'julie sanders 'in defiance .. i like bands that wear ties thanks for the support ... ( be sure to check out rockin rons gigs too ) ....RR

May 26, 2009