As a girl who grew up in the height of bands such as Paramore, New Found Glory and Panic! At The Disco, it was natural that when Fall Out Boy announced a show locally I screamed a little, rounded up all my friends and spammed social media in my anticipation for the event. Despite not actually enjoying their past two albums a great deal, I was still looking forward to seeing them. I heard from many people, websites and magazines that they were worth the £30 they were charging for a ticket. And for a band so big, you wouldn’t question it anyway. After all, they’re massively popular for a reason?

 

The date was growing closer and the line-up was announced across social media. Amongst the names we weren’t at all familiar with was Professor Green. While I’m entirely open to new genres and respecting all artists this did baffle me, as when I think of FOB, I think of pop punk, the Sugar, We’re Going Down days. As much as it pains me to say, I feel like this was a very commercial choice. Like the record label stuck a load of bands in for advertisement purposes.

 

But that’s not an entirely bad thing, after arriving late we heard the cheery sounds of Matt and Kim from the halls of the BIC. The general vibe of people going in and out between this act was rather positive. But having three supports meant that FOB, who’s show it was in the first place, would only play for an hour and a half, assuming the show was running on time. For a band with so many hits, this did concern me that we wouldn’t get to hear the classics, but I kept faithful the small set would be bursting with energy and sweet, angsty pop punk.

 

After making a group decision to cop out of Professor Green and instead, go to the chippy on the beach, we barely had enough time to run to the venue before the former kings of pop punk came onstage. The effects that introduced them were impressive. If I could hear what the words on the video were without them being distorted, I’m sure I would be even more impressed. But I’ll leave that to a fault in the venue, not the band.

 

I was pleased to hear Sugar, We’re Going Down so soon in their set, but quite honestly the timing between members fell out at some points, leaving a bitter sound in the air. The fans don’t seem to mind, although they seemed to react more to the newer songs, which it seems the band are better at playing too. Their attitude was alright, they talked to the crowd, moved around and joked with each other. I started to think perhaps I was just being sceptical, but after singer Patrick Stump (my childhood hero) copped out of a note on A Little Less Sixteen Candles and then again on My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark I was left feeling slightly let down. It wasn’t just that the note fell flat, but rather there was nothing to fill it’s space. It was as if they hadn’t even rehearsed the situation, he’d just stood onstage and hadn’t bothered. When trying to do an acoustic of Young Volcanos the backing mics were far too loud, causing the harmonies to clash rather than blend. They picked it up with new track American Beauty which is not a song I would normally enjoy.

 

Overall, I’m glad my friends are a laugh, and the fans were impressed, because one hint of negative energy besides my own, and I would have been bummed I wasted enough money to see a smaller band three times over.