Fall Out Boy holds court in a burst of pyro, puns and hooks
By Steve Appleford, Special to The Times
Pete Wentz is a master of crowd control.
At the
Forum on Saturday night, the
lyricist-bassist-ringmaster of Fall Out Boy had special instructions for fans:
Hold up your cellphones for
this song. Begin moshing
here.
Everyone take two steps back
now. Dance to
this one.
This is the power of a young band in the upper reaches of the Top 100. And fans
were primed for action at the Forum. They even sang along to a Panic! At the
Disco video shown between acts.
Not about to disappoint them, the members of Fall Out Boy made their entrance
with typical abandon, popping out of the stage floor in matching shades of
black, Wentz spinning on his heels, the inevitable focal point that night and
every night.
What followed were 75 minutes of pyro fireballs, sweet emo hooks and snotty puns
drawn partly from the band's newest album, "Infinity on High," a notable step
forward in Fall Out Boy's scope and song craft. The single "This Ain't a Scene,
It's an Arms Race" was a catchy, self-referential anthem, with an ironic,
tortured twist in Wentz's lyrics: "This bandwagon's full / Please catch
another."
Not every song was quite so memorable, but there was a bit of hip-hop flow in
"The Carpal Tunnel of Love," and singer-guitarist Patrick Stump could often be
urgent and soulful, even singing a few moments of Akon's defiant lover-man hit,
"Don't Matter."
Fall Out Boy's arena-rock dreams may have
gotten a bit ahead of reality, since the 17,000-capacity Forum was barely more
than half-full. A smaller room would also have meant less distance between the
band and its audience. But the Chicago quartet did deliver some hummable,
energetic pop tunes on a large scale, even if solid pacing and coherence seemed
beyond them.
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