yeesh

Sums up the FOB live experience JUST RIGHT

So, I played a one hour set as part of Air3's 24 hour broadcast, as well as sitting in on two other shows. It was fun. But I'm shattered, because I only slept two hours before heading through to Glasgow to cover the recent Daily Record/Sunday Mail strike action (more about that HERE). Wow, I'm tired, and Hell's Kitchen is coming on and it really sucks hard, so I'm going to post about Fall Out Boy. Ah, Fall Out Boy - I've defended them many times to people who hate them, even posting up a fairly-praising review of their recent Folie á Deux on Punknews.org, but goodness, their fans suck. (Sample comment exchange from Livejournal FOB community icecreamheadaches: oh golly.) And as catchy as their songs can be, they still lack an actual personality on stage beyond shuffling around while playing songs.

But this review of the pop-punkers' recent Believers Never Die 2 tour raises some interesting questions. Amanda DePaul's review isn't very well written in my opinion, but the troubling thing is the following point: "After the opening song, Pete Wentz launched into some rambling diatribe about how they were given a stage and they will use it to educate the world about the corruption of the government. Then we had to watch a stupid video about politics while they changed into their rockstar outfits. Seriously? Cut the political crap and just play your music. In case you didn’t notice, the majority of your listeners can’t even vote."

Now, while these shows sound somewhat ridiculously over the top even for FOB, is it really fair that a band with a young audience can't express political views? Politics is synonymous with our everyday lives, and I remember being probably more involved with it as a teenager than as the young adult that I am right now. That time in your life is when activism makes more sense than pretty much anything (at least that's what I think) and while FOB's stage set (they come out dressed as greedy businessman in wigs for the first half of their set) sounds clunky and misguided, the heart is in the right place. Pete Wentz has responded to the review on his blog in Kanye-aping ALL CAPS FURY. Tourmate 50 Cent hasn't said shit, but that would've made all of this a hell of a lot funnier and probably more worthwhile. Pimpin' Curly could've solved all of this blog chatter in ten, maybe fifteen minutes.

Let me know what you guys think about the issue, and rock out to the best song off Folie - which is also the most explicitly "political" song on the record, being all about the Bush years and meaningless activism sapping your hope. Apart from that "Girls used to follow me around" lyric. P. Wentz = not exactly poet laureate of making sense.

Fall Out Boy - (Coffee's For Closers)