Fall Out Boy @ Acer Arena,Sydney (21/02/09)

Tue 24th Feb, 2009 in Gig Reviews

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW HERE.

It’s the tour that’s sweeping the nation’s youth off its feet and into the arenas of our capital cities. Who else could it be but Chicago pop-punk dudes done good, Fall Out Boy? Tonight was the band’s final official stop, in the cavernous Acer Arena. As the audience filed in, it was quite remarkable just how literal the term – œall ages’ was – with punters ranging from pre-tweens to some twice as old as the band members themselves. We were all expecting a fun, bouncy stadium rock show. And you’re damn right we did.

The night commenced with a set from Paramore, who ran through a selection of tracks from their latest…hey, wait a minute! Oops. My mistake. It seems Paramore’s Hayley Williams has morphed into a slightly smaller version of herself with darker hair, going by the name of Cassadee Pope. If you haven’t guessed by this point, Hey Monday are a derivative, blatant mirror of the Paramore sound – a mix of four-on-the-floor beats, chiming pop guitar and plenty of melodic hooks with a chicks-can-rock-too attitude.

That’s not to say it was all bad. For what it’s worth, the girl definitely has some pipes on her, and the band were clearly enjoying themselves as the crowd obliged them with continuous bopping come chorus time. It is, however, a discredit to the band’s name when the most memorable moment of their set is a brief cameo from full-time publicity whore/part-time bassist Pete Wentz. Hey Monday sure are cute, and fun, too – but their lack of substance forbids them from being regarded as anything more than “that band with the smoking hot girl singer”.

After a glorious classical music interlude over the PA, it was time for the All-American Rejects. Thus began what shall now be dubbed as The Curious Case of Tyson Ritter. No, the AAR frontman was not aging in reverse. Just quite the curious case. Decked out in a very loose singlet and jeans, Ritter had a bizarre way of interacting with the crowd, including some un-family-friendly language and babbling about the meaning of a few of the band’s tracks. His performance style was also highly questionable – his bass guitar strap was strung so ridiculously low it was practically vertical. It gets worse: mid-song, he would abandon his instrument completely so he was free to dance around, leaving the roadies to do the hard work by playing the bass for him. This would have worked fine for a song or two, but for half of the set, it was just plain ridiculous.

Still, the crowd was pumped up, both enjoying the band hits such as Gives You Hell and Dirty Little Secret, as well as getting excited for the main event. Credit must also go to lead guitarist Mike Kennerty, who rocked out ferociously in his confined space, in addition to the unnamed fifth member of the band who added synth, percussion and extra guitar to the works (sometimes all at the same time). This is a band ready to rock stadiums, as proven here. Whether they will act on this in the future, however, remains a mystery.

The crowd was ridiculously excitable at this stage, which was not helped by the pop-rap which was blaring over the PA (Akon, Lil Wayne, Kanye et al). When it came to be at long last, and FOB took to the stage, you got a slight idea of what The Beatles received on their visit to our shores nearly fifty years ago: deafening, teenage, high-pitched squeals and screeches took out every last part of the venue. With little fanfare, the band kicked off with Infinity on High single Thnks Fr th Mmrs. With plenteous fanfare, the chorus saw a sea of bodies leaping for joy in time of Andy Hurley’s pounding beats, in addition to fiery pyrotechnics and the now-customary guitar spinning of Wentz and the grizzly-faced Joe Trohman. Yessirree, Fall Out Boy were back in Sydney, and they want you to know all about it.

The band kept the hits rolling from there. If it’s charted, they played it: This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race, Sugar, We’re Going Down (which featured wonderful guest harmonies from Cassadee Pope), Grand Theft Autumn, The Take Over, The Break’s Over, I Don’t Care … – more or less everything any fan, whether devoted or passing, could have hoped for. It was the more unexpected moments of the show, however, that really impressed. Cork Tree numbers such as I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me and Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner had acerbic passion mixed into the fray; notably with Wentz paying homage to his Arma Angelus days with some killer screaming in the former.

The opening track of 2008’s Folie a Deux, Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes, was given a thunderous intro thanks to five floor toms booming the “de-tox-just-to-re-tox” syncopation, a sight to see with a roadie either side of Hurley’s riser. Finally, closing number Saturday wrapped the evening perfectly as Pete ditched his bass to dive into the crowd, leaving Hey Monday bassist Michael Moriarty to take care of things (see, Tyson Ritter? THAT’s how you do it).

Despite an occasionally lacking mix (to be expected of the Acer by this stage) and an occasionally lacking set-list (where the hell was Dead On Arrival? The Carpal Tunnel of Love? She’s My Winona? ), we can count tonight’s proceedings as a positive tick for the band; no matter how hard your inner cynic wants you to despise them.