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Halfway through the show, Pete Wentz, bassist, and vocalist for emo pop outfit Fall Out Boy played a small record that the fans turned into a huge one. The audience supported that idea when the band stepped on stage for the opening song, which doubled as the lead single, "Love From The Other Side," off the quartet’s newest album, So Much (For) Stardust. Lead vocalist Patrick Stump introduced the 20,000 fans to his unique tenor vocals and falsettos during the apocalyptic love song, complete with fireworks, a flaming bass (thanks to Wentz), and deafening explosions.
After that, the band jumped back 10 years to its fifth album, Save Rock and Roll, a record emerging after returning from a four-year hiatus from 2009 to 2013. "Hey, young blood! Doesn't it feel like our time is running out? I'm gonna change you like a remix then I'll raise you like a phoenix," Stump refrained, a nod to a return to music, backed by swarms of loyal fans.
There's something cathartic about screaming, "We're going down, down in an earlier round, sugar, we're going down swinging. I'll be your number one with a bullet, a loaded God complex cock it and pull it," in the presence of the people who penned the failing relationship anthem. The classic favorite energized the crowd, prepping them for the next two hours of the rock show.
Photo by Phil DeSimone
Bring Me The Horizon plays MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Florida on July 25, 2023.
Supporting acts
Fall Out Boy called on worldwide talent to support the U.S. leg of the So Much For (Tour) Dust tour. First, the LA-based alt-rock singer, Carly McClellan CARR, kicked off the night, followed by New Jersey-born, LA-based "ASTROTURF" singer Royal and the Serpent (Rats). Despite technical sound issues, Ryan Santiago, lead singer of Rats, stunned the audience with her gritty lyrics and crooning blues/electro-rock vocals.
But out of all the openers, Bring Me The Horizon drew the most "S-P-I-R-I-T, let's hear it" from the crowd. The English metal rock band, fronted by Oli Sykes, encouraged the attendees to mosh harder and scream louder, preparing for Fall Out Boy's spectacle.
Visuals
The visuals are one of the most remarkable aspects of a Fall Out Boy show. The band split the segments into three or four song sequences with respective backdrops and stage sets to keep the audience entertained and the stage thematic. The first stage switch featured a reversing clock eminent of “Donnie Darko” and “Alice and Wonderland “before the quartet strummed the infectious bass line to "Uma Thurman." On stage, the backdrop showed a dark, psychedelic sea floor with a spinning starfish. Concert-goers turned toward their friends and muttered, that's so cool to every stage design.
Loving the clock metaphor, FOB returned to the ticking time bomb to accentuate the success of it earlier days. The screens aired a video of a clock's hands spinning backward while a female voiceover says, "But don't forget you left the light on twenty years ago."
As the attention resurfaced to the boys on stage, the overhead lights dropped to box them in, mimicking a smaller venue, similar to the ones the band played two decades ago. Stump recounted how the band came to fruition, sending samples of the songs "Dead on Arrival" and "Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy" to the Florida-founded label Fueled By Ramen.
The album art on FOB's newest album features a doberman amidst a group of bubbles, so FOB brought the famed dog to the stage, well a floating head of the photogenic dog named Blitz. The doby bopped behind Andy Hurley, the band's drummer, and stole the show to sing along to the iconic "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race," a self-aware reflection on the parallels between war and success as musicians.
Photo by Phil DeSimone
Andy Hurley, Fall Out Boy's drummer, stole the show to sing along to the iconic 'This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race.'
Patrick on the piano, Wentz the Wizard
Who doesn't love a solo piano session smack between rock ragers? Stump sat at the piano and confessed he doesn't know how to play many songs on the keyboard, but he goes with the flow. Every couple in the audience grabbed their significant other and swayed along with Stump's lilting lyrics on "What a Catch, Donnie," an ode to the relationship between Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack.
Stump paused following "Golden" before revitalizing the crowd and enacting a swift tempo switch for a fan-fueled choral chant of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."
Stump stood up from the piano so Wentz could climb atop the clavichord to demonstrate his affinity for magic tricks.
"I'm just melted wax on a birthday cake. Another year fades away. Charcoal crushed, pixie fever, angel dust. Stuck in a wasteland we covered in glitter and broadcast just for a little serotonin. Self-sabotage at best, under your spell," Wentz boomed into the mic the lyrics from "Baby Annihilation" before wrapping himself in a black sheet, fluttering the cover, and disappearing from that spot.
Fiery finale
FOB finalized its performance with a medley of four chart-toppers "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up), "Thnks fr th Mmrs," "Centuries," and "Saturday," plus the collective screaming of those 20,000 piled in attendance, confetti, streamers, and endless flames and fireworks. "What a Time To Be Alive" to see Fall Out Boy tour today.
