Live Review: Fall Out Boy, Against the Current & MAX - Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff 28/03/2018

Heading towards the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, all you could see were two huge queues, ready and waiting for doors to open and to be as close to the front as possible for headline act, Fall Out Boy.

The opening act was actor and singer MAX from New York, he leaped and bounded on stage with a hell of a lot of energy which carried on throughout his set. MAX kicked off his set with ‘Savage’ a track which he featured on with Flux Pavilion. With MAX’s shiny jacket dazzling under the arena’s lights he swiftly proceeded through his set, which included a cover of ‘Outcast – Ms. Jackson’. MAX closed his highly energetic set with his most publicly known song which has been widely played on the radio, ‘Lights down low’.



The main support for Fall Out Boy were Against the Current from New York as well. With a massive amount of energy, frontwoman Chrissy Costanza covered nearly all of the stage when performing and giving every song 110%. Against the Current performed a mixture of old songs and new tracks, ‘Voices’ and ‘Strangers Again’. Coming to the end of a energetic and show stopping set, Costanza thanked the Cardiff crowd and expressed her love for the city and how it’s their favourite place in the U.K.



The lights dipped, the back screen started moving in the form of waves, Fall Out Boy rose up from underneath the stage on individual lift systems and hopped straight into first track ‘The Phoenix’ keeping the energy in the air from their emphatic entrance the transition into second track ‘Irresistible’ was slick. This carried on into the third song, ‘Hum Hallelujah’ where guitarist Joe Trohman made good use of the long-extended stage while streamers went flying into the air, this concluded the most pyro I had ever seen in the first three songs at a gig. But it didn’t stop there…Once the streamers had dropped Hurley hit the first drum part of ‘Sugar, We’re Goin Down’ which the crowd’s reaction was ecstatic, with the ever-frequent fire pyro flying up behind Stump and Co. sent the crowd wild.

Fall Out Boy smashed their way through there next few tracks which included ‘Immortals’, ‘Centuries’ and a hell of a lot of pyro. It was then time for Stumps piano to be rolled onto stage to switch up their set, in the middle of the three piano songs was ‘Young and Menace’, the first track so far off the new album ‘M A N I A’ they played in their set. The piano got wheeled off stage and the band disappeared also, a minute later drummer Andy Hurley rose up from the B-stage at the end of the stage runway playing a drum solo which included a ‘Kendrick Lamar – Be Humble’ remix, which then set the tone for Stump and Wentz to make their way to the second B-stage which then lifted into the air as the band started to play ‘Dance, Dance’. A piece of production which I feel puts Fall Out Boy at the stage where they have the best production in the business at this current time.

With the three tracks ‘Dance, Dance, Expensive Mistakes and Memories’ smashed out the park, Fall Out Boy headed off the B-stages and made their way back to the main stage. While they did this, the Llama’s featured in Fall Out Boy's video for ‘The Last of The Real Ones’ appeared on the screen joking about the band, they then made their way onto stage to throw t shirts into the crowd, before the band re-joined the main stage and played ‘I Don’t Care’. Everyone enjoying themselves and the pyro flying, Fall Out Boy had got to their last song before their encore, the last three songs before their encore surprisingly had no pyro in but after their small encore break they came out with a bang.

Starting with 'Champion' another new track off M A N I A gave Fall Out Boy a strong start to an encore which would prove to take you back to your teenage years. Heading straight into ‘Uma Thurman’ the first vocal hook sent the crowd wild, then once the pyro went flying up the pace and excitement was set at the highest bar, the bar was definitely raised once ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark’s’ intro started playing as the crowd simultaneously started clapping and chanting. As you would expect, when Patrick Stump sang the main chorus the stage pyro definitely did ‘Light ‘Em Up’. Heading into the last song, ‘Saturday’, Wentz took off his M A N I A customised blue denim jacket and made his way down the stage runway to sing the heavier part of the track, midway down the runway the finale of the pyro went off with purple confetti flying into the air and covering the Cardiff Motorpoint crowd. As this was flying into the air, Wentz climbed onto the barrier beside the stage runway and thanked the crowd, who had been amazing all the way through.

Overall, to some up Fall Out Boys set it was an all-round stellar performance with banger after banger, accompanied by a pyro fest and production to blow your mind. A show that puts Fall Out Boy at the pinnacle of the best live band on the touring circuit.



Photography by Ami Ford
Words by Jake Haseldine