Fall Out Boy / Against The Current – Manchester Arena – 29/03/18
After being awarded global recognition from their second album ‘From Under The Cork Tree’ in 2005, Fall Out Boy have been on one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Cementing themselves as one of the best Alternative bands around aside the likes of Panic! At the Disco and My Chemical Romance, they were flying high in the early part of their careers. A Hiatus saw them leave the scene for four years before returning as a seemingly different band in 2013. Full of bold powerful rock and pop bangers, FOB split opinion with their returning album ‘Save Rock and Roll’. After 2015’s ‘American Beauty/American Psycho’ hit the charts everyone was much warmer to the reinvented band and they found themselves soaring once again.
Now with the recent release of their seventh studio album ‘Mania’, Fall Out Boy are back with a bang. Set to headline this years Reading & Leeds Festival, they head out across some of the UK’s best arenas to give everyone a glimpse of why they are worthy festival headliners.
It falls to Against The Current (7.5) to get us nicely warmed up for the main act, and it seems that the Poughkeepsie trio are the perfect fit for it. It’s not the first time frontwoman Chrissy Costanza has lead the stage of Manchester Arena, and it shows as she covers every space available through a bitesize set of seductive singalongs such as ‘Running With the Wild Things’, ‘Gravity’ and more, before ‘Wasteland’ closes leaves us wanting more. Luckily it’s just a mater of time before Fall Out Boy return to this very stage.
Fall Out Boy’s (9.5) entrance to Manchester Arena can only described as heated, as the band rise to the stage on platforms to the pounding sound of ‘The Phoenix’, with blazing blasts of fire shooting from the stage leaving drummer Andy Hurley on his toes from the start. The furious opener leads us into the appropriately named ‘Irresistible’ which has us singing along with it’s seductive chorus which we are literally blown into with fireworks.
Sparks continue to fly as Pete Wentz runs down the walkway to get a little closer to the crowd so they can get a closer look at his random Tesco cap, leaving us wondering if he has a part time job elsewhere stacking shelves.
Frontman Patrick Stump looks well up for it as he storms through the set smashing out the chords and vocals on top form with great intent. It doesn’t take long before we’re taken back to our youth with the memorable ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ for some old school bouncy pop-punk FOB.
The Pyro is keeping on the edge of our seats, but the visuals behind the band are just as fun and interesting as the show. From snippets of F1 racing to some Disney’s Big Hero 6 footage for the fantastic ‘Immortals’ there’s something new around every corner. Clips of people flicking us off from our favourite films and programs backs the power driven ‘I Don’t Care’, and an emotional video of the tragedy of Princess Dianna backing ‘Champion’ leaves us with a frog in our throat and a tear in our eye.
The set drives us through the highlights of all of Fall Out Boy’s greatest hits such as ‘Centuries’, ‘Dance, Dance’ and ‘This Ain’t a Scene…’ keeping our eyes and ears glued to the stage. Newer material from the recent album ‘Mania’ is dotted about through the set and sounds as solid as the rest.
The set drives us through the highlights of all of Fall Out Boy’s greatest hits such as ‘Centuries’, ‘Dance, Dance’ and ‘This Ain’t a Scene…’ keeping our eyes and ears glued to the stage. Newer material from the recent album ‘Mania’ is dotted about through the set and sounds as solid as the rest.
A quick switch up mid set finds Pete and Patrick soaring high at the back of the venue to the roof on a rising platform of screens, just above Joe and Andy hovering to the side for a swinging performance of ‘Wilson’ and fan favourite ‘Thanks fr th Mmrs’.
Back over to the usual stage to finish off the show, Fall Out Boy storm through an encore of their MJ guitar fuelled cover of ‘Thriller’ and ‘Uma Thurman’, before ‘Light Em Up’ literally lights up the arena setting the stage on fire once again to turn up the heat a little further. As ever it sounds incredible live and leads us perfectly into the set finale of ‘Saturday’ finding Pete Wentz in his Manchester supporting Bee T-shirt jumping down to the barrier for well-deserved high fives all around as the confetti pours down over the arena.
An incredible performance all around from Fall Out Boy looking as strong as ever and ready to embark on a new chapter of their careers with great intent in the form of ‘Mania’.
Roll on Festival season!
Check out the full set of live photos of Fall Out Boy in Manchester here!
(PLEASE DO NOT CROP OR EDIT PHOTOS)
Photo Credit: © Danny Peart Photography 2017
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