Fall Out Boy

support My Awesome Compilation + Spitalfield
author PP date 23/02/05 venue Mean Fiddler, London, UK

Mean Fiddler is one of the more compact venues around in central London. It houses 800 people at a sold out night. Tonight's show had been sold out for more than two months as Fall Out Boy is one of the most hyped up bands on the internet right now, with almost 300,000 profile views on their myspace account!

My Awesome Compilation

My Awesome Compilation kicked the night off with solid pop punk just outside of the mainstream. They were very active and energetic on the stage, which lit up the few people present already this early at the gig. Even though MAC showed great energy accompanied with their melodic pop punk, they had some clear weaknesses they have to address before they will be able to sell out venues like Mean Fiddler. Their vocal harmonies were exactly the same in every song. It was difficult to distinguish one song from another. Once they add some depth and variation to their songs they will be a big mainstream pop punk band!

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Spitalfield

Once Spitalfield entered the stage one could hear a decent cheering from the crowd. Mean Fiddler was nearly full at this point and one could clearly see that there were lots of people who knew Spitalfield from beforehand. Even though Spitalfield's studio recorded songs are awesome, they weren't able to produce the same quality and effort live as on thealbum. Spitalfield were dull and mediocre at their best tonight, in comparison to the energetic, melodic pop punk with great vocal harmonies that's present at their studio efforts! Once they find out how to reproduce the strengths of their albums live, they will be a great live band to be enjoyed by all punk fans! But for now, they aren't worth seeing any more than Millencolin!

4

Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy entered the stage as the crowd was chanting "Fall Out Boy, Fall Out Boy" after Spitalfield's mediocre performance tonight. Fall Out Boy's bassist Pete was still ill tonight so they had to borrow TJ from Spitalfield to play bass for tonight - a pattern that had happened at their first couple of shows of the UK tour. Fall Out Boy isn't anything ground breaking in the world of punk rock. They have witty, memorable choruses over straight forward, simple power chord infused guitar riffs without much depth in them. Nothing new under the sun to be honest. So why is Fall Out Boy so popular? It's their charisma live that counts.

Fall Out Boy live isn't like watching Millencolin underperforming their studio efforts, or watching Papa Roach do the same stuff as on the album. The amount of energy on stage is just unmatchable by the bands previously mentioned. Lots of headbanging, jumping around, running across the stage and larger than life riffs drilling into people's heads guaranteed an exciting night for the sold out 800-capacity crowd tonight. Songs like "Calm Before The Storm" were sang along so loudly that the Simple Plan gig attendees next door were easily able to hear it through the sound proofed walls, and songs like "Chicago Is So Two Years Ago" saw the crowd moshing like it was the end of the world. The soft, acoustic song "Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner" was accompanied with the usual lighters and mobile phones in the air, and "Saturday", the last song tonight, saw the crowd explode like one of those bombs dropped by USA into Iraq.

Overall, Fall Out Boy's performance was great, although a little bit short and one-sided. But this is understandable as they were unable to field their full lineup due to health problems. The entire set consisted of songs from "Take This To Your Grave" and one solo song from the acoustic album. One thing was made clear tonight to me: Fall Out Boy rely heavily on their live performances rather than their musical talent. On one hand it can be counted as a minus for a band but in this case it's a big plus in my books!

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Setlist:

  • 1. Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to do Today
  • 2. Dead On Arrival
  • 3. Calm Before The Storm
  • 4. The Patron Saint Of Liars And Fakes
  • 5. Homesick At Space Camp
  • 6. Grand Theft Autumn
  • 7. Grenade Jumper
  • 8. Chicago Is So Two Years Ago

--- Encore ---

  • 9. Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner
  • 10. Saturday

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