Fall Out Boy - Support from Nightmare of You and Gym Class Heroes Manchester, Academy 1 Live Review

Fall Out Boy with support from Nightmare of You and Gym Class Heroes

Manchester, Academy 1

27/01/06

Live Review

Producing troubled rock sounds to closely align them with their peers; Matchbook Romance and the emo genre, with the odd vocal swerve towards Alkaline Trio helped the grafting Nightmare of You win over a few fans. They possessed enough enthusiasm and presence to keep those huddled towards the front like arctic penguins contented. The fervid bass lines of Ryan Heil lifted the songs in places to allow for some mild swinging from the viewers.

Cocky hip hop backing by way of tinned beats, Snooop Dogg and Run DMC picking up Kanye West on the way to Brooklyn vocals, provided by the masterful Travis built upon a base of thriving rock guitars, to produce what could be termed as ghetto rock. Given the generous reception provided by "into it" onlookers that greeted numbers like 'Paper Cuts' and the sinister 'Taxidrive", it appears that ghetto rock could be the new nu-metal and will soon be sweeping the nation; mmmaaaannnn. However, this was not for everyone and one dissenter made his objection to this outfit, clear throughout the whole set. Much to the chagrin of Travis who spent at least 3 minutes at the end on tip toes at the front of the crowd barriers beckoning the guy forward; for clear the air talks, no doubt?

It is easy to see why Fall Out Boy are so popular on the evidence of tonight's set. There songs pivoted between the big sounding pop punk anthems of Motion City Soundtrack like; 'Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued' and 'Sugar We're Going Down' from their recent and most rousing album 'From Under The Cork Tree' and more mournful numbers from their non-mainstream days

Fall Out Boy's fans certainly completed their homework well, they had learned the lyrics as studiously as some learn the Periodic Table; with each song being screamed back at Stumpy and co with gusto. Patrick Stump appeared to make a fashion faus paux by choosing to don a great deal of green; "it made him look fat", according to some female fans. The lash out at small town life that is; 'Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year' caused some frivolous pit action and seemed to be the most popular song of the night. It matters little, whether or not Fall Out Boy are what rock music really needs, as they made a number of youthful attendees happy and that is all that matters, isn't it??

David Adair