Noise: SFBG Music Blog - Hardly art, hardly garbage: Fall Out Boy at Great American Music Hall

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By Michael Harkin

"Why'd they have to do the concert on this day, when they knew it'd be rainin'?" You posed a good question, Mr. Passerby. I arrived at Great American Music Hall at 11:45 a.m. on this damp, overcast Sunday morning, Dec. 22, and 150 people were already lined up around the corner from the club. Mostly teenage girls around, but lots of parents toted umbrellas and blankets - what good sports! - knowing full well that they'd be out there another seven hours with their kids before doors.

My neighbors in line had variously traveled from Stockton, Mountain View, and San Jose, willing to pay far more than the $20 door price to see Fall Out Boy that night. Their health 'neath those Decaydance hoodies wasn't quite as important as the close proximity the venue would afford them.

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I can't readily provide a sufficient rationale for standing out in the rain this long, especially when the band in question is the embodiment of commercial rock's absurdity - they headlined the Honda Civic Tour last year, for heaven's sake - and regularly employ such overwrought, cumbersome song titles as "I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me and You)." That said, I like 'em anyway - hard to say why. And this beats paying 60 bucks to see them with some terrible bands at the HP Pavilion next summer, right?

It was a long, shivering haul. I can hardly remember the last two hours, except for that pervert perched across the street who stripped from his apartment window for the crowd assembled, but it somehow felt worth it.

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For more than an hour and a half, Fall Out Boy cranked out most of its hits and fan favorites, parading about with the light-up guitars they had last week on Letterman during new single "I Don't Care" and giving plenty o' room for bass player-lyricist Pete Wentz to wax celebratastic between songs. Despite a needless explanation of his new haircut, making five too many mentions of the event's sponsor, and repeatedly claiming that he didn't care that people would be blogging about his unsavory personality the next day (you're overthinking it, dude!), he generally kept raps to about 1.5 minutes each. Not too bad.

The group let their roadies' band, Horror Business, play a Misfits cover mid-set, and they teased a bit of Estelle's "American Boy" before leading into their 2005 hit "Sugar, We're Goin Down." As can be seen in the above photo, several of the fans who'd been crushed between the stage and the barricade were allowed onstage for the last part of set closer "Saturday," forming a mountain atop which Wentz climbed, ready for a Kodak moment that comparatively shy vocalist Patrick Stump gladly stood back from.

Overall - a good show. Thnks fr the mmrs, FOB! And the pneumonia…