Fall Out Boy performs at Washington’s 9
If there’s anyone Patrick Stump never, ever expected to meet at one of his band’s shows, it was Jay-Z.
Stump and the other three guys from the Chicago punk outfit Fall Out Boy were headlining in a sold-out show last December at New York’s Irving Plaza. And when they went backstage to recoup before the encore, a pleasant surprise was waiting.
“We go upstairs, and f–ing Jay-Z is there,” says Stump. “We had to go back out, so I – real quick – shook his hand and was like, ‘I love you, man,’ and then we had to go back on stage.”
Since then, things have been more casual between Fall Out Boy and Jigga, not only because Jay-Z is genuinely a fan, but also because he’s the CEO of Def Jam. The band’s major label debut, From Under the Cork Tree, was released on the Island/Def Jam imprint in May 2005 and has since remained in the Top 40.
Fall Out Boy combined the album’s in-store success with the incessant touring that had characterized the group even before getting mainstream attention. This summer, Fall Out Boy was one of the hottest acts on the Vans Warped Tour. Currently, the band is headlining the Nintendo Fusion Tour, which hits Washington’s 9:30 Club Thursday.
From Under the Cork Tree is the band’s second album and is a breakthrough effort of rabidly infectious pop-punk hooks crossed with savvy, humorous lyrics. “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” the first single off the album, has been on ubiquitous radio play across the country. Plus, the song’s campy video, in which the main character has deer limbs, made No. 1 on MTV’s TRL countdown.
Now Fall Out Boy is among Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance and others in the elite club of underground punk and hardcore groups that have crossed over to the daylight of America’s pop consciousness. And yet, three of the four members of the band – guitarist and vocalist Stump, 21, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, 26, and drummer Andy Hurley, 25 – still live with their parents in the Chicago ‘burbs. (Guitarist Joe Troman, 21, has his own place in the city).
“I think you can totally be a totally normal kid from the suburbs of Chicago and go off and play shows,” Stump says in a phone conversation from the band’s tour bus. “It’s one of those things that when you go home, you’re still the nerd you were when you left, and your parents still get to yell at you about cleaning up your room, and your girlfriend still drags you to the pet store.”
The girlfriends have actually been, at one point or another, big influences in what the band does. Wentz, the band’s lyricist, penned the band’s first full-length effort, 2003’s Take This to Your Grave, after his ex-girlfriend cheated on him with two of his best friends – during the same weekend. The lyrics, well, weren’t too nice. (“And did you hear the news?/I could dissect you/And gut you on this stage/Not as eloquent as I may have imagined but it will get the job done.”)
When Take This to Your Grave was released, Fall Out Boy already had a strong following. The album sold more than 250,000 copies, and made Wentz’s ex-girlfriend famous in the Chicago punk crowd, because she was obviously the album’s muse. The lyrics backfired in a way.
Whomever the guys are dating now, it seems, is something they want to keep to themselves. Stump is cautious when talking about their significant others. He doesn’t give too many specifics and dodges questions by being very general and giving at times an all-too-unsubstantial “yeah, yeah” to gloss over his answers. But they do have girlfriends. Right?
“A couple of us do,” Stump says.
It must be difficult if Stump’s girlfriend, for example, is in Chicago, and the band’s on tour.
“Yeah, yeah … she’s in Chicago,” Stump says. “Whatever, I mean, it’s uhh …”
Maybe being able to talk on the phone makes things easier.
“Yeah, yeah … we talk on the phone a lot,” he says. “But you know, when I come back after two months, I go home, and to her. It’s cool. Whatever, you know.”
With From Under the Cork Tree, Fall Out Boy took a decisively different lyrical direction than straight rants about ex-girlfriends. It’s a combination of self-deprecating humor, stabs at the punk and hardcore scene, pure irreverence and, yes, some songs about girls. It’s clear just by looking at song titles from the album: “Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of this Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued,” “Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year” or “I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me.”
Wentz’s lyrics and Stump’s vocal melodies have been half the reason for the band’s popularity.
“He’s writing what I’m singing, and I’m writing what he’s playing,” Stump says.
The other half has been their constant unconformity with what’s going on around them.
“We were kind of feeling that a lot of stuff was getting stale in the scene that we live in, that we thrive in,” Stump says, explaining the album’s different direction. “We kind of wanted to distance ourselves, not from the scene, but from the shit talking and the arrogance.
“This sounds cliche,” he continued, “but we just wanted to do our own thing.”
Contact reporter Jorge Valencia at valenciadbk@gmail.com.
