By Christina Jiang
4.5/5
Venue: the O2 Arena
When Fall Out Boy announced the tour of their latest studio album, So Much (for) Stardust, I did not pay it much mind. I considered myself only a casual listener, with fond memories from the emo-phase of my earlier teen years. But when a friend invited me to the first of their two London dates with tickets she won in a giveaway, saying yes might have been the best decision of my life.
Opening with the lead single of their 8th album, ‘Love from the Other Side,’ FOB spend two hours running through their entire discography. Fans from all generations were never more than a couple songs away from their favourite era, with ‘Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy’ igniting an impressive sing-a-long and ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More “Touch Me”’ lighting up the arena pink. One noticeable absence, though, was 2018’s ‘Mania,’ an album fans had widely criticised. Still, one of the better songs, like ‘Hold Me Tight or Don’t,’ could have truly made things complete.
In more ways than one, this concert was a performance. The calibre of the whimsical set design was eye-catching and impressive, featuring a giant mechanical dog’s head, and magic 8-ball to decide songs. In an apparent challenge to be more extroverted, bassist Pete Wentz left the stage for a moment to let lead singer Patrick Stump entertain the audience alone, which he did in the form of a Mr Bluesky mashup cover. And of course, there were copious amounts of flamethrowers.
Mentioned several times throughout was the 20th anniversary of their 2003 debut Take This to Your Grave. Indeed, there was a distinct tint of nostalgia to the show: from the abundance of material from their older albums, to this album’s return to their Folie a Deux producer Neal Avron and older pop-punk sound. There’s something heartwarming about Fall Out Boy still going so strong after two decades, selling out an arena to 20,000 loyal fans when so many bands of the 2000s pop-punk generation have faded away.
