Fall Out Boy, The All AmericanRejects, Hey Monday @Challenge Stadium 15/02/09

Mon 16th Feb, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Surprisingly there was no local act to warm up the crowds as many international bands are doing these days. Instead, South-Eastern pop/punk band Hey Monday (who have a band member average age of 20) skipped onto the stage. Pumping out catchy numbers such as Arizona and Josey, they had the room of little girls screaming along to their easy-to-please lyrics. Pint sized, lead singer Cassadee Pope was a vision on stage jumping around in her flapper inspired singlet and violently shaking her “emo” hair reminiscent of Hayley Williams of Paramore. Just as the crowd was getting amped at the fast paced tunes off of their debut Hold On Tight, band members Mike Gentile, Michael “Jersey” Moriarty and Alex Lipshaw left the stage leaving Pope to slow it down with an acoustic version of break-up song, Candles before being joined again by drummer Elliot James. Vocally her sound could be compared to a fifteen year old trying to be punk but collectively they sound like a band suited to the styles of Decaydance (headed by Pete Wentz) such as Panic at the Disco, The Academy is… and Cobra Starship, though youthful in spirit. Finishing with the hook laden Homecoming we saw the band come into their element with everyone singing along to the chorus and band members jumping around the stage, taking in the audience.

A little time had passed before The All-American Rejects hit the stage with frontman Tyson Ritter sporting a red, velvet jacket and glittery red shoes hinting to the audience that his on stage presence is as flamboyant as his wardrobe choice. It has been three years since these punk rockers had come to the western shores of Australia and it seems an injustice to have them as a support act.

Choosing to play a setlist of their rockier sounding tracks and best of’s they started with tween anthem Swing Swing and finished with an introduction. Next was Dirty Little Secret, which saw Ritter stumbling clumsily across the stage, weaving in and out of band members and almost falling off the stage. Guitarist Mike Kennerty actually fell off the stage which made people question what these guys were on. Nevertheless this made for an entertaining set. The stumbles became a strut as Ritter pranced around, emulating Freddie Mercury before speaking out about the Victorian bush fires and how it reminded him of the Californian fires. Cue Mona Lisa, a country sounding jingle backed by Nick Wheeler’s acoustic guitar. With the lyrics, “If we can burn a city in futures and in past…you can sit beside me when the world comes down…” resonating through the stadium, lighters and phones lit up, swaying side to side in the moment. Lights went out for a dramatic introduction to the recently released track Gives You Hell, from the album When the World Comes Down. We hear the lyrics, “Where’s you picket fence love” with the word “love” replaced with “bitch” from Ritter who swears like a sailor. An excellent choice of language for an all age’s concert, though the young ones lapped every word up.

Setting up for the headliners was no easy feat as lights came in from all directions. Lights blazed and a black backdrop was released to reveal…FALL UT BOY? What an anti-climax! Delaying the band from entry it took a swift and co-ordinated stage tech five minutes to climb up onto the beams and released the snagged sheet covering the O.

A half naked, tattoo clad Andy Hurley leaped onto the drum kit to the rapturous applause of the thousands of punters gathered in the stadium. Joined later by members Patrick Stump, Wentz and Joe Trohman they quickly launched into the text speak, titled song Thnks fr th Mmrs with Trohman performing the guitarouette (pirouette with guitar) move many times throughout the song and swinging his white boy fro backward and forward, a nice change from acts that just stand in one place strumming their guitars. It was in the title song Thriller off of 2007’s Infinity on High that we see the extent of Stump’s vocal range as he hit the high notes with precision proving that his live performance is as precise as the recordings. Ever the showman Wentz fluffed with the audience asking the people who had been in their seats all night to create a Mexican wave stating that he was, “…holding a literal gun to their heads”. Alas, the fans obliged. Way to win the affection of fans by “scaring” them into submission with a non-existent, literal weapon.

After a lot more bantering with the crowd (which mainly consisted of females under the age of sixteen) which followed Wentz intently with camera phones he teased the audience, saying that he wanted to take them to New York, Chicago and then to see L.A. before breaking out into a short cover of Kanye West’s American Boy which mashed in with Sugar, We’re Going Down that saw Pope of Hey Monday join in with Stump for an interesting combination of male and female tones.

Until now the lighting had been pretty standard with a stripped back set. When the introduction of This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race began to play out the audience went mental as this was clearly the track that propelled Fall Out Boy to mainstream popularity. Half way through the song the lights went out and both electric guitars and bass guitar lit up with in-built led lights. A nearby observer exclaimed, “This must be what real starpower looks like!” A completely agreeable statement, as the guitars were the complete focus during the song.

For those lucky enough to score a ticket to Fall Out Boy’s Q&A session before the show you would have heard someone ask if they could make the song America’s Suitehearts into Australia’s Suitehearts. After much consideration they agreed that it wouldn’t make much sense because it was written to take the piss out of America instead they put the song out to Nicole and Keith. This song was also received well by the audience as it turned into a sing-along. After the song had finished and all the guitar lights were turned off the band dispersed into the darkness leaving an empty stage and the front row begging for more, chanting their name.

The long silence and the anticipation of an encore had the audience questioning what the band would play for an encore. The answer came in the form of a group of girls in the front row who had gone to the trouble of creating posters with Dead on Arrival written in large capital letters. Not originally intending to play the oldie, the girls were treated to a performance of their request. Next was Dance, Dance which had the whole room on their feet jumping to the beat and tempting people to do the lindy-hop. Lastly they thanked the audience for attending their show and finished off with Saturday which separated old fans from new. Old or new it didn’t matter as everyone was making the most of the last song of the night including the tour manager and members of Hey Monday who joined in with their guitars. Again the band left the stage throwing drumsticks and picks out into the pit with fans scrambling for the coveted objects. With one show down and many more to go there is sure to be many more antics from these Chicagoans who have proven that they can be just as exceptional live as they are recorded.