Fall Out Boy

A few songs into ‘Live in Phoenix’, Pete Wentz tells the crowd they have permission to “heckle, dance, have fun, so long as you have a smile on your face, we don’t care.” As much as we would like to heckle we know that Pete really doesn’t care – he’s playing an American über-stadium amphitheatre full of jocks and their girlfriends, little girls with their moms and dads, and he’s a smug git. Honestly, when Wentz strips his shirt off, he makes Johnny Borrell look modest.

‘Live In Phoenix’, recorded last June, appears here in both audio and visual formats, with the DVD giving us the aesthetic delight of sexy Wentz, sweaty Stump and the other two flailing about a big stage, with all the standard stadium effects. Video screens, fire flares, tickertape finale… yes, the Fall Out Boy live experience is a straightforward affair, pumping out the hits (‘Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down’, ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’’, ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ and ‘The Take Over, The Breaks Over’ are all here) with all the right poses. We also get a drum solo at the end of ‘Dance, Dance’, so that’s nice.

Wentz even gives his chums and label employees Panic At The Disco a shout out before ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race’. He’s right, it ain’t a scene, emo doesn’t exist any more, all these bands have in common is their ambition. First Panic ditch the exclamation mark and the eyeliner, now ‘Live In Phoenix’ just confirms what we always suspected: Fall Out Boy are a big shiny rock band who collaborate with Jay-Z, date mainstream pop princesses, advertise deodorant in their videos and release live CD/DVDs to keep fans happy. Hey, you can’t sell out if you never believed in anything in the first place, so you may as well enjoy the show.

Alice Emanuel