What do you get when you cross a 7-foot llama costume with pop-punk royalty?
The short answer to this riddle is a band with millions of fans whose career has spanned a decade and a half and dozens of multiplatinum singles, and whose comeback tour is taking the Amalie Arena by storm on November 5. Fall Out Boy is back, and it’s shedding the pop-punk label for a sound and a show that will take its fans for a new ride.
Fall Out Boy — which formed in the suburbs of Chicago — has been around the punk-rock block more than a few times. The four founding members (Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley) originally formed the band as a side project; most of them were already heavily involved in the independent hardcore and punk rock scenes of Chicago.
It was by chance that the band became essential to the growth of the pop-punk movement of the early 2000s. Its 2003 debut album, Take This To Your Grave, was an instant underground sensation. Rolling Stone and Alternative Press hailed it as a cornerstone achievement and a significant piece of the emerging genre. In the years that followed, FOB released three more platinum albums, a slew of chart-topping singles, and was featured in everything from film scores to television commercials before taking a brief hiatus in 2009 to focus on solo careers.
“In the time that we took off, it gave us some perspective and allowed all of us to appreciate each other as adults.” Pete Wentz, FOB’s bassist and lyricist, told CL. “We’ve known each other since we were kids. Sometimes when you’re in a band you get stuck at one age; that’s how you view each other. Taking the time off and then re-engaging with one another allowed us to have some perspective.”
Now FOB is back with a new album (M A N I A, due January 19) and tour that Wentz himself describes as “bonkers.” While playing festivals in Europe, Stump approached Wentz with a new song he had been working on. Wentz said he knew it was important upon first hearing it. In many ways, “Young and Menace” and its video are representative of the beginning of the band’s comeback.
The song is also why we’re talking about llamas.
A visual homage to films from the band’s childhood, the “Young and Menace” video features two large Jim Henson-style monster-like creatures, which represent the much more serious themes of self-identification and the human condition. The band is amused by the public reaction.
“They’re not really supposed to be llamas. One of them just kind of looks like a llama. The other one totally doesn’t. I guess that’s just what they get called,” Wentz said, laughing. “We brought them on tour. You’ll get to see a different side of them.”
This article appears in Nov 2-9, 2017.