After seeing Fall Out Boy for the third time last summer at Riverbend Music Center, I knew I needed to see my favorite band again. Fortunately, I got tickets for the second leg of their U.S. tour, So Much for (2our) Dust, and attended the Columbus show at the Schottenstein Center Friday. Spoiler alert: I had the night of my life.
Between trading bracelets and theorizing about the night's Magic 8 ball song with fellow Fall Out Boy fans, I watched the opening bands CARR, Hot Mulligan and Jimmy Eat World each work the room and set the stage for what would be a light-hearted, fun show. It was a little strange being the only one standing up and dancing for the most part (until people stood up for Jimmy Eat World's last song, "The Middle"), but it was fun nonetheless.
Fall Out Boy's introduction song, "The Pink Seashell (feat. Ethan Hawke)," started over the speakers, and the audience came alive. When the red curtain finally opened, revealing the band and pyrotechnics, the crowd roared to life with "Love From The Other Side." The band kept up the hype with its well-known songs "The Phoenix," "Sugar, We're Goin Down" and "Uma Thurman."
The middle of their set blew hardcore fans away by dragging out b-sides like "Hum Hallelujah," "G.I.N.A.S.F.S." and "Bang The Doldrums." Many of those have been played a few times throughout the tour, but seldom have they been played in the same show. Of course, they littered other big songs of theirs like "Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy" and "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" in between fan favorites like "Dead On Arrival" and "Calm Before the Storm."
Mid-show, lead singer Patrick Stump bravely revealed to the crowd that he was sick. "I keep going for these big notes and all this crap is coming up in my lungs," he said as he strummed the beginning chords to "Grand Theft Autumn." "That means if you know this song you gotta sing it." His sickness didn't hinder the show too much except for the occasional voice cracks, which were completely understandable. It made it all the more impressive when he went for the massive vocal runs during songs like "Headfirst Slide" and "Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes."
During their slower, acoustic guitar-driven track, "Fake Out," glowing pink lights lit up the stadium from the So Much (for) Stardust Project. Fans provided and handed out the small, pink Magic 8 ball cut-outs before the show, and audience members held them over their phone flashlights while the tune played out. Then, the lights went down and a piano was wheeled onto the stage.
Stump sat down alone at the piano, prepared to wow the concertgoers. Every show, he plays an impromptu medley that concludes with a cover of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now." For Columbus, he sang one of the band's newer tracks, "What a Time To Be Alive," and an older, heartfelt tune, "What A Catch, Donnie." Given Stump's sickness, hearing these two vocally demanding tracks was surprising, but he sang them flawlessly. Even before he played, he said, "I think I'm just going to go for it, and you're going to hear some bad notes."
After the full band Queen cover, the phone flashlights came out again for their emotional piano track, "So Much (for) Stardust," the title song off their newest album. At the end of the song, Pete Wentz hopped on top of the piano and started with a small snippet of the spoken word ending of "20 Dollar Nosebleed." Then, he transitioned into another spoken word track, "Baby Annihilation," to which he ended by lifting a black sheet over himself, shaking it and disappearing like a magic trick.
Without Wentz on stage, the rest of the band started on a cover of "Song 2" by Blur. Later, it's revealed that Wentz ran over to the b-stage on the other side of the stadium and lifted into the air to play another pop-punk hit, "Dance, Dance." Eventually, Wentz returns to the main stage to play another new track, "Hold Me Like a Grudge."
The night's final surprise came from the "Magic 8 Ball." Every night on tour, the band asks the projected Magic 8 Ball at the top of the stage what song they should play next. The song is different every night, ranging from never-before-played-live tracks or hidden b-sides that haven't been played in a while. For the night's Magic 8 Ball track, they played "Fourth of July," a song from their 2015 record, "American Beauty/American Psycho." The fan-favorite track had not been played live since 2017.
The show closed with a hit-heavy encore. Fire and pyro lit up the stage for "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)" and "Thnks fr th Mmrs." Thankfully, I did not almost get my head crushed this time since I was in the stadium's lower bowl. Then, "Centuries" and "Saturday" closed out the show with Wentz going into the crowd and screaming along with Stump for the remainder of "Saturday."
I had an absolute blast seeing my favorite band of all time in Columbus at the Schottenstein Center. The band was lively, keeping the crowd enraptured in their shenanigans. Although Stump was sick, they kept it together and put on an amazing show. If you ever have the inkling to go to a Fall Out Boy concert, do it, or you may regret it.
