Tuesday night, Sept. 25, emo pop band Fall Out Boy performed at the Don Haskins Center for a crowd that couldn’t stop dancing and singing throughout the show as soon as Patrick Stump and company took the stage as part of their Mania Tour.
Rappers Machine Gun Kelly and Nothing, Nowhere were the opening acts for the show. With MGK’s recent diss tracks and rap beef with rap legend Eminem, it was interesting to see the dynamic that the rapper had with a crowd who clearly was on Em’s side.
The Chicago-based band kicked off their set, which ended up being over an hour long, with “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes” from the album Folie à Deux. After their third song, they formally introduced themselves to the audience before playing arguably their biggest hit “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” from their 2005 album From, Under the Cork Tree .
The show featured multiple theatrics. From bassist Pete Wentz’s fire-spitting bass guitar to fireworks and a rising stage.
The stage featured a main stage that covered the Haskin’s Center floor with a separate small revolving stage towards the back of the crowd. Behind the main stage was a gigantic screen that altered from the band playing to multiple pop culture references, such as former and current presidents of America, Fortnite and Princess Diana. Each referenced represented the song that was being performed, such as “Immortals,” which is from the movie Big Hero 6 and featured multiple shots from the movie; and American Beauty/American Psycho’s “Uma Thurman” that featured scenes from the actresses movies such as Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 and Pulp Fiction.
Midway through the show, drummer Andy Hurley executed a drum solo, banging his drums along to Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble,” Lil Uzi Vert’s “Xo Tour Lif3” and finishing off with “Song 2” by Blur. As soon as Hurley finished his drum solo, Wentz and Stump reappeared on top of the rising stage where they performed three songs. The rising stage was a great way for the band to interact with those in the audience that were higher up in the stands, and also was reminiscent of Kanye’s floating stage. That mini-set on the other stage featured “Dance Dance” and concluded with “Thanks fr th Mmrs”.
Before playing the intro of “Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy” that later led to the full song, Fall Out Boy played Champion from their current album Mania. The band concluded their set with their hit song “Centuries” off the American Beauty/American Psycho album.
