- Apr 3

FALL OUT BOY (A Parent's Perspective) Show Review

Pop-punk legends, FALL OUT BOY recently disembarked on their second leg of their "So Muck For Stardust Tour" affectionately renamed the "So Much For (2our) Dust", which features the likes of Jimmy Eat World as well as The Maine, Hot Mulligan, CARR, Games We Play and Daisy Grenade as support.

The tour is in support of Fall Out Boy's 2023 album So Much For Stardust which features the singles Love From the Other Side and Hold Me Like a Grudge. The second leg of this tour kicked off on February 28th in Portland OR, and plans to hit major cities across the US including Baltimore MD, New York City NY, Austin TX, and more!

Wednesday, March 27th, 2024. FALL OUT BOY heads into the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, the stadium home to the Pittsburgh Pens. As we arrived to the show, every enterance of the nearly 20,000 capacity arena was brimming with Fall Out Boy fans young and old. It's a strange reminder sometimes that this band is 20 years old and still going strong with a multi-generational fan base, which was awesome to see parents bring their kids to see the band with the entire family being fans.

At a prompt 6:30 PM, opening act CARR took the stage, a pop-punk outfit hailing from LA California, and headed by the beautiful and talented Colette Carr. The band gave off a Simple Plan meets Avril Lavigne vibe with a blend of the modern pop-punk sound, ie, acts like Knuckle Puck, Magnolia Park with a sound all to their own. CARR kicked off the set with their single Spiral City from their 2023 record The CARR Show, followed by a track dedicated to some asshole named Dylan. CARR dedicates the track Loser to a different "asshole ex" at this show and allows the crowd to yell out the name of the person it'll be dedicated to, Dylan this night was the unfortunate candidate. The set continued on with tracks Doctor Doctor and Cartoon, followed up by their latest single Hot Dad released earlier this year, before finishing up with track Sick Bro off of the before mentioned The CARR Show record.

One of my favorite more modern pop-punk bands HOT MULLIGAN was up next on the bill. I've seen this band a few times in the past, and they never cease to amaze me. The way singer Tades Sanville can belt out this unique style of singing and screaming with harmonies on top is something that gets me every time. The band's unique song titles are more than enough to raise eyebrows, The People's Eyebrow I could say, like their track John "The Rock" Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker" a track that the band closed out the night with. Opening with Drink milk and Run, followed by Equip Sunglasses, It's a Family Movie She Hates Her Dad and one of my personal favorites Bckyrd. I was kind of bummed that Dary and Featuring Mark Hoppus wasn't on the set list, but I digress, still an amazing set none the less.

After a brief intermission, legendary punk rockers Jimmy Eat World ware up. Every time I see this band live, I forget how many amazing songs they have in their catalog. Coming out to Quiet Riot's "Cum ON Feel The Noize" the band opened up with A Praise Chorus followed by Big Casino and Sweetness off of their Bleed America record. One of my favorite tracks For Me This Is Heaven was stuffed in the middle of the set and was a surprise to hear live. Work, Pain and Bleed America are all fan favorites which were scattered throughout the set list, followed by an amazing moment with the track Hear You Me which saw the 20,000 capacity arena hold their lit cell phones and lighters up to a pitch black stadium as the song loomed on. Jimmy Eat World finished their 15 song set with track The Middle, their breakthrough single from their 2001 aforementioned album Bleed America.

After the final intermission, FALL OUT BOY was up next. Lights flickered and dimmed as Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball played over the PA system followed by Fall Out Boy's version of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire. The audio clip of The Pink Seashell played with actor Ethan Hawke's voice in the background which kicked into Love From The Other Side, the first single off of their 2023 record So Much For Stardust, the tour that's named after the same record. FOB kicked into the Phenoix and then early on in the set they played Sugar We're Goin Down from their From Under The Cork Tree record which jumped into Uma Thurman, another fan favorite into a deep cut track entitled Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying off of the Cork Tree album again.

Taking it back even further the band played Chicago is so Two Years Ago off of their debut record Take This To Your Grave, affectionately known as "The Blue Album" into Grand Theft Autumn, one of their very first breakthrough singles off of that same record. This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race played followed by Disloyal Order of the Water Buffaloes from their Folie A Deux record.

The stage set up was awesome on this tour. During certain songs the curtain would close and open to reveal different backdrops onstage including a giant puppet dog, a giant puppet snail, a person in a bunny outfit, basically an acid trip on stage. On top of that Pete Wentz, bassist of FOB has a bass guitar that shoots out fire periodically throughout the set, similar to how KISS has done in the past, with the piece de resistance being a platform that raises Pete Wentz high above the crowd into the air on a crane, and the cherry on top being a piano on stage that singer/guitarist Patrick Stump plays during one portion of the show.

Which brings me to the piano segment of the show. Admitting he was under the weather, Patrick gave thanks to the fans and gave one of the most humble shoutouts to one of my favorite bands and Pittsburgh punk rock legends Punchline whom they admitted touring and playing with hundreds of times, while also giving a shoutout to legendary Pittsburgh venue Club Laga which has since been closed. Patrick leaned in and started singing the first half of Punchline's song Heart Transplant off of their breakthrough record Action, a record in which Fall Out Boy did extensive touring with the band jumping right into a medley of tracks after on piano including What a Catch Donnie, Golden and finishing up with Queen's Don't Stop Me Now before the rest of the band rejoined him onstage to finish out the tune.

Title track So Much for Stardust was up, followed by a cover of Blur's Song 2, straight into their single Dance Dance. One of the sickest things Fall Out Boy has done as of recent is this "Magic 8 Ball Song". A magic 8 ball appears on the giant monitors of the stadium, gets "shook" and reveals a very rare, deep cut, b-side track that the band has very seldom played live, or never live at all. Pittsburgh's 8 ball track for the night was a deep cut from From Under The Cork Tree entitled The Music or the Misery which got an awesome response from a lot of the diehard FOB fans in the crowd.

The band closed out the night with four fan favorite singles, My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark off of their Save Rock n Roll album from 2013, Thnks fr th Mmrs off of their Infinity on High album, Centuries from American Beauty, American Psycho and finishing off the night in classic fashion was their track Saturday, their very first single off of Take This to Your Grave nearly 2 decades ago which, live, has always featured this awesome spot at the end of the song when confetti and pyro are going off, bassist Pete Wentz throws off his bass, grabs a microphone and dives into the front row of the crowd screaming.

Fall Out Boy live is a definite must-see for any nostalgic emo kid. Their set lists feel like a shuffled playlist of their discography. It's always a surprise to hear deep cuts and b-sides and they definitely give the fans that rather than play the same old set, same old well known singles from front to back. Fall Out Boy really knows how to give fans a show. Even if you're not a huge fan of the band and only like a few tracks, the takeaway is always the live experience. They've been one of my favorite pop-punk outfits since their Infinity on High record and seeing them live for the first time since the Honda Civic Tour when that album released was simply amazing.

Check out the FALL OUT BOY photo gallery and highlights below!

GALLERY