The Apollo is the place to be tonight. The show Sold Out to the degree that not even the touts have tickets and the ones they had went for about £60- if you got one for less, you were lucky! Why all of the commotion about Fall Out Boy? Because people love them. Album ‘From Under the Cork Tree’ achieved Triple Platinum status and they were even nominated for Best New Artist at the ’06 Grammy Awards. On top of that, their latest record ‘Infinity on High’ reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 and the two singles released so far off it have stormed the charts.
The Apollo is heaving and bands Shiny Toy Guns and Cobra Starship have been invited to entertain/showcase their sounds to an impatient crowd. Unfortunately for one too many, Shiny Toy Guns have been on and gone by 8pm. New Yorkers, Cobra Starship remain totally confident despite the hall being totally stacked (the vast majority being pretty young). Cobra frontman, Gabe Saporta, ex-Midtown singer/bassist, has a curiously flawless confidence as he jumps/dances around the stage and chats humorously with the room. The songs and the vocals are strong, only shame is that the band need turning up, consequently the bands Pop/Punk/Disco combination is mellowed. The crowd still respond well with heaps of clapping etc, recognising that the band are talented, love what they do and have a hoard of good songs stored on ‘While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets’ album, which they plug as it was released yesterday. Crazy banter about glow sticks, a brief version of Gwen Stefani’s ‘Hollaback Girl’, combined with the odd bit of suggestive dancing and a standout guitar solo, Cobra Starship prove that fun can be contagious. Highlights being ‘Church of Hot Addiction’ (apparently they ‘started this religion in honour of Fall Out Boy’) and finish brilliantly on ‘Snakes on a Plane (Bring it)’ in which Saporta invited a young girl on stage to do the rap. Go get converted! (7.5)
The wait is finally over, as Fall Out Boy tear open their set with ‘Our Lawyer Made us’. The crowd is chaotic as people fight to the front screaming and shouting every lyric back- almost competing with the band. For anyone who has seen them before, tonight they are truly at their best. Since the last time they were here, the stage is more expensive and elaborate, with ramps leading up to Andy Hurley and drums, a silver curtain backdrop, 5 large screens (which at times spell Fall Out Boy across like a screen saver, show the band members or appears multi-coloured) and dozens of different lights.
Patrick’s vocals are fantastic throughout the show and shine so beautifully on new album track ‘Golden’, which he performs acoustically. They even appear more polished- somehow tidier and better dressed, like live versions of the dolls (not the other way around) and the performance of ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ was spectacular. The atmosphere got that much more intense, the crowd got that bit more hyper and the air- a good 10 degrees hotter. It was followed by ‘The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes’, by which point the crowd was studded with mobile phone lights to record and keep every minute possible. Before some of the songs were played, Pete would chat randomly to the audience and give hints to the next song, e.g. ‘he tastes like you but sweeter’ in reference to current single ‘Thnks fr th Mmrs’. FOB amigo Dirty came onstage for an interval to entertain the crowd and get kicked in the nuts. Yes, really. He actually invited 2 kids (a boy and a girl) to kick him where it hurts. Pretty crazy for a guy who’d spent the majority of the morning in Manchester A+E nursing his elbow. Pete’s screaming in the songs is more frequent and sounds great. For ‘Dance Dance’. Dirty slys back onstage and dances around the whole of the stage. The band are having fun, the audience are having a ball, and they’ve never sounded better, and with approximately a 16 song set, the audience got their fill to say the least. (9)
Carolyn.