The early 2000’s was a great time in music if you liked pop-punk and/or emo. Ton of bands were coming out with great music, touring extensively, and obtaining great success. I don’t think anyone would know that in about 20 years these bands would not only be influential, but continue their career as musicians to even bigger audiences. Living in eastern Pennsylvania I was able to see many bands start, grow, succeed, and sometimes end. However, the beginning of their musical journey was always the most exciting to see because it felt like you were a part of something that meant so much.

In 2004 I would see at Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown, PA, Mest, Matchbook Romance, Dynamite Boy, and a band that could’ve easily been the headliner Fall Out Boy. At this point Fall Out Boy was rising very fast to become the next band to break from the scene. In just one year, From Under The Cork Tree would be released and there would be no slowing down for them. When I saw them in that 1,100 capacity room, which was very over sold, it was like watching the footage from “Dead On Arrival” video. I knew that from here on out I would probably never see them play this room again.

Fast forward almost 20 years later, Fall Out Boy’s live show is much different than when I saw them in 2004, but is still one of the most exciting shows I’ve been to. With their latest album So Much (For) Stardust, that came out earlier this year, they aptly called this tour “So Much For (Tour) Dust”. Opening the tour on this date was CARR, who recently signed with Pete Wentz’s label DCD2 Records. Due to traffic I was unable to see the performance, but made in time for the next act, Royal & The Serpent. Royal & The Serpent had a big following in the crowd for the crowd was singing along and bouncing off each other throughout the set. Musicianship wise, everyone in the band put on an incredible performance and drummer Tosh might be up there as one of the best drummers’ out there now. The set for Royal & The Serpent was 10 songs with most of the songs coming from the Rat Trap singles and a cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Their energetic and outspoken set definitely wins as a great band to see live, and it would be fun to see this band in a small capacity club.

Following Royal & The Serpent was a band that has been around just as long as Fall Out Boy. Bring Me The Horizon may seem world’s away from Fall Out Boy’s sound, but there are plenty of fans that cross between both bands which makes this tour a great pairing. The stage set for Bring Me The Horizon was massive, for three members were on the actual stage and the other three were situated on top a fairly high platform. A very unique way to present their live show, but this band is very larger than life. With how many albums Bring Me The Horizon has, their set was mostly focused on their newest material from both EP’s Post Human. Between both EP’s the newest one Post Human: Nex Gen was played the most, since they were gearing up to release the album. However, at the time of this writing, the album was pushed back to the beginning of 2024. Towards the end of their set and during the song “Drown”, singer Oliver Sykes surprised the crowd by going of stage walking through the pit to then making his way up the back of the venue were people were standing in the grass. The amount of excitement this brought to where phones were out not stop and Oliver made sure to hug or pat fans on the back. For a band this big it was great to see the band break down that untouchable barrier. As Oliver made his way back to the stage the band finished off with three more songs and kept the crowd’s spirits up for Fall Out Boy.

When I saw Fall Out Boy in 2004 it was like seeing the “Dead On Arrival” music video in real life. Seeing Fall Out Boy in 2023 was a whole new experience. They obviously couldn’t just come on stage and just perform with some lights, but instead they brought in some of the craziest stage props I’ve seen. From fire works, flamethrower on a bass, a massive clock, different set pieces, to a massive animatronic dog that would mouth their songs, if this is what Fall Out Boy is spending all their money on it is worth it. Even though Fall Out Boy is past those 1,000 cap rooms, during the songs “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago”, “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy”, and “Calm Before the Storm” they actually had their stage set sort of shrink down to make it look like a small club. This is just proving that no matter how big Fall Out Boy gets, they still remember where they came from.

Another aspect to their show is that they make sure you get your money’s worth, they play at least close to 30 songs. This includes all the hits, covers like Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” and some deep cuts. The way they present the deep cuts is they have this massive Magic 8 ball pick the song to be played. For this show the song picked was a song that hasn’t been played since 2015 and it was “I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me” to which the crowd instantly broke out into a frenzy. Now Fall Out Boy has some massive hits, they even played some of their biggest ones at the beginning of the set, like “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”, but what I found surprising was that the last song they play is “Saturday”. A song that older fans love and newer fans also, but I wouldn’t have expected to hear this song last. It is just another point to show that Fall Out Boy still remembers their roots and still go by what they want to do. I will always remember that 2004 show for it was a show that blew me away by their performance, but this show did the same thing except for different reasons. Fall Out Boy might be one of the biggest rock bands out there, but the difference between them and others is they are still the same people they were when they first started this band.