Sometimes, when you wait for something to come along, you build your expectations too high and are left disappointed. When you wait eight years to see a band you grew up listening to and are still one of your all-time favourites; you know they won’t let you down. Especially when it's Fall Out Boy!To say I was excited to see Fall Out Boy would be a massive understatement and even though I was full of cold, I wasn't going to let anything get in my way.
There was such a buzz around the arena while everyone waited for the support acts to take to the stage. On the bill tonight were New Politics and The Pretty Reckless (I had hoped the Chicago lads would bring Panic! At The Disco along off the back of their US tour together, but no such luck).As a fan of Gossip Girl, I was shocked to see how Taylor Momsen was acting on stage; in fact the way the band came on stage to those sounds made me feel uncomfortable. I think she's got a really good voice and it's distinctive but I can't help but feel their music is lacking something. It probably didn't help that I spent the whole time thinking, "oh Jenny Humphrey what are you doing!"As Trohman, Wentz, Stump and Hurley took to the stage there was a roar from the crowd. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who had waited a long time for this. “Put on your war paint,” shouted Patrick Stump sporting a black balaclava fitting with the theme of their new album ‘Save Rock And Roll’.Following with ‘I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me’ and ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More “Touch Me”’, I was whisked back in time to my teenage years where I stayed for the following track, ‘This Ain’t A Scene’, even choosing to sing along with the wrong lyrics, “I’m a little man, and I’m oh so evil, oh so into cats” like I used to.Latest single, ‘Alone Together’ went down a treat accompanied by a montage of photos of couples together, with a heavy emphasis on punk culture.Jay Z's voice rang out around the arena, meaning one thing and one thing only - 'Thriller'. The first track from 2009's Infinity On High gathered a raucous cheer.
Pete took a few moments to tell us the story of the scorpion and the frog before the band performed 'Death Valley'. The scorpion asked the frog if he could climb on his back and be taken across the river. The frog, being cautious, and rightly so, refuses as he believes the scorpion will only sting and kill him. The scorpion assures the frog this won't be the case and hesitantly the frog agrees. As they cross the river, the scorpion stings the frog. "The moral," Pete laughs, "is sometimes you're gonna be the frog and sometimes you're gonna be the scorpion. This song is about falling in love with the scorpion!" Andy Hurley led the band in for ‘Sugar We’re Goin Down’ with that oh so familiar drum pattern and the North East crowd went wild. The single, along with ‘Dance Dance’ were bound to get a lot of love, but to my disappointment the older tracks seemed unfamiliar to many faces.After a cover of Michael Jackson’s, ‘Beat It’, the band sneaked off to the middle/back of the arena to perform two songs (conveniently, two of my all-time favourites) all acoustic. ‘Chicago Is So Two Years Ago’ wasn’t meant to be on the European set list, but due to a power cut in Manchester earlier in the week, the band had time to fill and the song was added. Tonight, I hadn’t expected to hear it but it was a very nice surprise.The second and final acoustic track was also taken from Take This To Your Grave, ‘Grand Theft Autmn/Where Is Your Boy’ and it was beautiful.A few songs later, ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up) was dedicated to all the fans. "This song is a love letter to all of you and a big middle finger to everyone else", Pete explained and after the final woah-ohs, the band left the stage and the lights faded out.I think we all knew that wasn’t the end and just moments later the guys returned to play the title track from the new album, ‘Save Rock And Roll’ which really could have been the closer for the show based on how anthemic and electrifying the performance was. Clearly they weren’t ready to say goodbye too soon and launched into the hit single ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ before finishing with ‘Saturday’, one of my all-time favourites!As the final note rang out and the band said their thanks and goodnight, I told myself – I will see them again and this time, it won’t be as long a wait! A completely faultless performance and one of the best gigs I’ve been to, not quite beating Yellowcard’s Ocean Avenue Acoustic tour, but it came pretty damn close!
