Fall Out Boy review: Emo quartet take fans through their journey from boys to men

The emo heroes bring the hits to Electric Brixton
Emo heroes: Fall Out Boy perform live
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Elizabeth Aubrey12 January 2018

“I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker colour,” Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump sang on the infectious new song (Wilson) Expensive Mistakes.

It’s a fitting lyric for a self-styled emo band, but its delivery couldn’t have been further from the awkward angst that characterised the Illinois quartet’s 2003 debut Take This To Your Grave.

Stump oozed confidence, bouncing off the energy and enthusiasm of a band who finally seem to have resolved the identity issues they have wrestled with over their 17-year career.

Rather than fitting into emo or pop-punk or rock, the band — and their fans — have realised that Fall Out Boy are at their best when they navigate all three. Last night they did just that, delivering a perfectly balanced set of the nostalgic and the new across a range of styles and genres.

The Phoenix, from Save Rock And Roll, and Centuries, from American Beauty/American Psycho, made for an energetic opening: fans moshed like it was 2001. Save Rock And Roll — the band’s 2013 duet with Elton John — sounded sharper with an aptly chosen prominence of piano over guitar and Andy Hurley’s typically charismatic drumming lifted its more anthemic moments.

This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race, from Infinity On High, and Saturday, from Take This To Your Grave, had aged well and fans clearly delighted in hearing early classics again.

The retro-kitsch of American Beauty/American Psycho’s Uma Thurman was another of the many highlights. Although tracks from their new album Mania might have proved too slickly produced for some, the band’s new sound is certainly an intriguing direction.

“I think we’ve come up with a pretty f***ing special record,” bassist Pete Wentz shouted. After this performance, few could have argued otherwise.

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