GIG REVIEWS

FALL OUT BOY
@ Live at Leeds University
24.1.06
www.vanguard-online.co.uk


The emo clone factory has been in overdrive tonight. Filing through the doors are identical looking lads with the compulsory wedge hairdo and black tee combo, whilst most of the girls sport the same vest tops and baggy kecks as each other, even though the Avril look went out two years ago. If rock n’ roll is about individuality, it’s not evident here. All the same, the clones ready themselves for impending invasion, via their My Space accounts, to the sound of Chicago’s Fall Out Boy. One could argue they are emo clones themselves as they are virtually indistinguishable from most other bands of their ilk, but their anthemic qualities raise Fall Out Boy above the jarring mediocrity that permeates the scene. Having never heard any of their music before tonight, I’ll be damned if I can’t get the chorus to ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’ out of my head for the next couple of days.

Their pin-up bass player Pete Wentz isn’t the most charismatic of frontmen - between-song raps are unimaginative (‘We’ve heard a lot about you Leeds girls’, etc. Listen to ‘Kiss Alive!’ and learn, boy!) – but the girls like him and that’s more important anyway. Gerard Way’s position of emo hotty du jour is now under threat. Despite his newfound heartthrob status, this doesn’t stop him from hiding beneath his hoody for much of the gig, unaware that he’s rocking the council estate scrote look. Pete doesn’t sing but the superbly-named Patrick Stump does a decent job of it, leading the sold-out University through mass singalongs, like the Jimmy Eat World-esque ‘Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year’ and ‘Grand Theft Autumn’. Fall Out Boy have got the hooks and looks, but a few interesting diversions wouldn’t go amiss otherwise they will be nothing more than this year’s Good Charlotte or Sum 41 and who’s bothered about them nowadays?

Ross Halewood

www.falloutboyrock.com