Fall Out Boy Prove They're Good

Ricoh Coliseum

Toronto, ON

on May 5 2009

Sheena Lyonnais (CHARTattack)

05/06/2009 4:09pm

Fall Out Boy get a lot of slack thanks to Pete Wentz's ability to miraculously remain in the spotlight for no significant reason.

Fall Out Boy appear to be a one-man show at first. Wentz does all the song introductions and provides the back stories while the spotlight shines only on him. The rest of the members remain in the dark, including vocalist Patrick Stump.

But somewhere in the set, Wentz forgot that he's littered all over Hollywood magazines and just played music. When he does, the performance suddenly became honest and easy to get lost in. With the bullshit cast aside, it's easy to acknowledge the fact that FOB are really talented musicians. It's no wonder they had four opening acts.

Hey Monday, a young Florida band, were the first. Their pint-sized, teenaged vocalist, Cassadee Pope, packs a lot of heart. Their pop-rock sound laced with rock and soul revved the crowd perfectly for the night.

Hey Monday showed an astonishing amount of enthusiasm and energy, especially considering their 6:30 p.m. start time. Pope later received a warm welcome from the crowd when she hit the stage to join Cobra Starship for a song.

New York's Cobra Starship were hands down the best band of the night. I'd seen them play Warped Tour last summer, so I wasn't surprised when "Guilty Pleasure," "Kiss My Sass" and the new and ironic "Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We're Famous" rocked the fuck out of everyone. These guys are a hipster dream band with an obvious love of heavy synthesizers and neon clothing, yet they've comfortably found their niche with the pop-punk crowd. The variance is nice, especially since dancing is the new cocaine.

It was obvious that, besides FOB, the audience was most stoked for All Time Low. The band screamed "Hello, you beautiful fuckers!" as they hit the stage and proceeded to tell immature sex jokes that I admit were kind of funny. They had catchy choruses, rippin' guitar work and a lot of energy — so much so that guitarist Jack Barakat climbed all the way into the stands at one point. They're cute and quirky, but I wasn't entirely sold on them. What can I say, I'm maturing much faster than I thought.

Then came Metro Station. The sound was inconsistent, which made it sound like they were faking it. The vocals and synths sounded authentic, but I just wasn't buying them. But I'm willing to give them the benefit of a doubt because the Ricoh has poor sound quality and I'm sure Metro Station have more self-respect than that.

The crowd loved it, though, especially when scrawny vocalist/guitarist and Miley Cyrus' older half-brother Trace Cyrus took his shirt off. They played "Shake It" and "Seventeen Forever" and ended with "Control." Cyrus showed off his impeccable ability to swing his guitar around his body while singing his heart out. All skepticism aside, Metro Station are still a ridiculously fun band to watch and shake it to.

Then, finally, Fall Out Boy. I have to give it to them, they really owned the stage. They didn't have the same calibre of energy as the younger bands, but they played like true rock stars. Stump obviously knows his audience. Instead of concentrating on the crunchy new tracks from Folie A Deux, this show was an homage to the album that made them famous, 2005's From Under The Cork Tree.

Members of the opening bands joined in for songs at various times and at one point they covered Michael Jackson's "Beat It," which would have been cooler if I hadn't seen Pierce The Veil do the same thing a month ago. They did a brief political spiel/visual montage that was kind of ignored — more anti-American government jazz that tends to get lost on already enlightened Canadians. FOB tore through all of their hits like magic and even came back to do an impressive five-song encore.

If the focus wasn't primarily on Wentz, maybe the Ricoh would have filled to more than half-capacity and Fall Out Boy would get the respect they deserve for being the truly talented, strong and fun musicians they are.

Photos of Fall Out Boy can be found here.
Photos of Metro Station can be found here.