Invoking the "roommate privilege", Kevin, Mark, Suzie and I all went to the sold-out Fall Out Boy show this evening at the Warfield. I forgot my camera (and I'm not sure that they would have let me bring it in anyway), so I had to make due with some crappy cell phone pictures, like this one of the boys on stage:

Kevin and I got to the show over an hour after it started, so I missed a few of the opening bands (I hear from Patrick that Panic! At the Disco is pretty great). I missed even more of the opening bands, however, by standing in the oppressively long merch line:

I was trying to buy a Motion City Soundtrack shirt for Sara, and a Panic! shirt for my cousin Iris. By the time I got my turn to purchase, both were sold out. So, having to buy something after waiting for over an hour, I bought a FOB t-shirt.

The show itself was pretty decent. FOB was really tight, and Kevin and I both thought that Patrick was doing a much better job of singing into the microphone, and thus not "clipping" his vocals. They played a pretty decent mix of songs from "Take This To Your Grave" and "From Under The Cork Tree", including "Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is My Boy", "Chicago Is So Two Years Ago", "Sugar, We're Goin' Down", "Dance, Dance", "Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year" (Patrick really held that note fora long time, it was great) and "XO" (one of my favorites).

It was a real surprise, however, when they reached back to their first full-length "Evening Out With Your Girlfriend", and played "Moving Pictures". I think I was one of the few people who had even heard that song before, much less knew some of the lyrics. The crowd in general didn't know what to do with themselves during that song.

After the show, we used our back stage passes (sweet!) to go downstairs, where we met up with Patrick for awhile. We had a wide ranging conversation that touched on Shredder, fake accents, weird intersections of evolution as exemplified by the platypus and broken kitchen sinks. I finally steered the topic towards music, or the creation thereof. I have been giving Kevin some shit recently about not recording any of his music, and his latest excuse is that he needs a drum machine. When Patrick heard this, he quickly deflated that notion, talking about how he has been creating lots of beats using Apple's GarageBand software.

And just like that, we were off to the tour bus, so that Patrick could show us GarageBand:

So, I will gush now -- this is the first time that I have been cool enough to be "back stage", or on the bus. I of course liked the Fall Out Boy bus because they had lots of toys -- several plasma screens with stereos, DVDs, and game systems, several macs (at least 4), tons of music equipment, etc. It definitely looks like a cramped way to live for months upon end, but still, it is a huge upgrade from the van that they used to drive. One of the neatest things that we saw on the bus was a painting of the band done by a superfan:

It is hard to make out, but it is a rendition of Fall Out Boy mixed in with a famous painting.

Anyways, the bottom-line is that it was a really fun time. The concert was awesome, I had a good time hanging out afterwards, and despite the traffic and getting rained on, it was well worth the trip.

-Andy.

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