On September 16, Fall Out Boy brings their M A N I A Tour to Orlando’s Amway Center with a revolutionary show that will inspire the band’s lifetime fans to embrace a new wave of sound.
Fifteen years since the release of the Chicago-based emo group’s debut album, Take This to Your Grave, Fall Out Boy has taken up residence in the mainstream world as one of the decade’s most metamorphic bands, revealing the transformative capabilities that have brought them from playing grungy venues to headlining arenas alongside the kings and queens of pop.
While some may believe that the quartet has sacrificed their edge in pursuit of popular relevance, Fall Out Boy’s latest album, M A N I A, proves that the band has harnessed their method of musical survival to become stadium rock icons and garner fans from a more conventional audience.
Unlike the majority of bands that have sold out to secure the ever-fading glory of Top 40 heights, Fall Out Boy has managed to maintain their identity as a band—the cordial sense of togetherness in rock bands that has all but dissolved from 2018’s trend-centric music landscape. The four members have remained a tight-knit crew with a legacy to match, which has served as the key to their steadfast grip on the emo kids of the past as well as their ability to attract post-punk listeners.
While frontman Patrick Stump melodically admits on M A N I A, “All of my childhood heroes have fallen off or died,” there is an air of self-reflection in the surprisingly honest line. Although many of the group’s former fans have dismissed the band’s aspirations of change, it takes an entire album-worth of Stump’s confessions to embrace the belief that the Fall Out Boy lead singer has risen from the ashes with the band’s new direction.
Filled with dance-beat heavy tunes reminiscent of 2013’s “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark,” and the following year’s “Centuries,” M A N I A’s single “Champion,” co-written with pop star Sia, furthers Fall Out Boy’s transformation from the spokesmen of the skinny-jean emo scene to radio-ready hitmakers crafting universal arena anthems.
The band began their genre revolution with 2009’s Folie a Deux, which continues to stand as their most diverse album with track-by-track idiosyncrasies and daring vulnerability. M A N I A works in a similar fashion, showcasing Fall Out Boy’s affinity for taking bold risks and experimenting with a variety of genres on the album’s selections.
While original fans of the four-piece might not find the sentence-long song titles that defined their earlier albums, M A N I A is full of Stump’s soaring vocals over intelligent wordplay and bassist Pete Wentz’s eccentric whim for coining brilliantly bizarre lyrics. But perhaps the crowning achievement of Fall Out Boy’s monumental career is their commitment to excellence in each live performance, from the early days to their 2018 tour. You won’t want to miss this amazing opportunity to see Fall Out Boy at what might in fact be their prime—a tour that encompasses the band’s maturing character and tells the story of their genre-conquering journey.
