Cult of Personality
Plush for punk, but perfect for pop
By Reyan Ali |
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The Chicagoan pop-punk outfit, Fall Out Boy, has traced a remarkable trajectory, and it's all been up. Tracking their Columbus stops, FOB, which formed in 2001, rose from playing the now-defunct Midgard Comics space (Feb. '03), to an opening slot on Blink 182's national tour (May '04), to headlining the Newport (Nov. '05) - all in two and a half years. Now, they're used to occupying the LC Pavilion and Value City Arena. When they returned to a 300-person venue by playing The Basement last December, it wasn't as fallen idols but instead as a special attraction to make ultra-fans salivate. Yet, as revered as they are by the tween and teen sets for their LiveJournal-style poetry, Fall Out Boy is reviled by post-grads and beyond for being too saccharine and self-involved.
It's easy to figure out why these upstart princes of pop are so divisive. Often deified by minors, Fall Out Boy has probably already turned that promotion into retirement funds. Yet every new release is more ambitious than the last as they fill track after track with enormous hooks, high-end production, and impressive guest stars. With cameos from both Lil Wayne and Elvis Costello on Folie a Deux (Island), their late '08 disc is firm proof that FOB isn't afraid to unabashedly shed punk credibility for pop swagger.
Every successful pop group needs a star, and FOB is no different. Here, it's Pete Wentz, a charismatic and elfin 29 year-old immediately identified by his charming half-smile, eyeliner, and Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos. This heartthrob does more than provide FOB's basslines, screams, and verses: he gives tabloids something to write about. Husband to pop-rock mistress Ashlee Simpson, Wentz's combination of self-confidence and self-promotion have insured that all of Fall Out Boy will remain in the public eye (and under it's scrutiny) for a long time to come. Recent case in point: a February profile in Blender cast both Wentz as an egocentric divo and the group as a dysfunctional quartet teetering toward internal combustion. FOB hotly refuted most of these claims, but ultimately, it's an incredible compliment that the media cares enough to embellish in the first place.
614 spoke to Fall Out Boy drummer Andy Hurley. Portrayed in the Blender piece as a maniac who "slams his iPhone onto the table, gets up and, without a word, starts punching the metal door frame, and doesn't stop for 45 seconds" after witnessing a bad day in Green Bay football, Hurley was the most vocal about his distaste for the article. Ordinarily receding from the limelight of frenzied hype, Hurley's soft-spoken and genteel disposition makes him the sanest candidate to discuss this extravagant act because he sounds nothing like the pop luminary that the band's success should have turned him into.
After the Blender article, do you feel that there is a certain amount of yourself that you need to protect from the media or the public?
"You definitely keep that in the back of your head. When you meet certain reporters, you build a rapport. That guy was out with us for a couple of days and he seemed like a really nice dude. We all got comfortable with him. There's guys like that trick you and write something completely opposite. That [article] was completely exaggerating. I'm a big football fan and the Packers are my team, so I was joking around and yelling because that's what I do when I'm around friends. Then, I read about it and it says I was on the verge of suicide. I know that it was written as a joke, but a lot of kids thought it was serious. People believe what they read. There's definitely a sense of insecurity with a lot of press. A lot of situations are misconstrued. The lens doesn't tell the full story. It sucks but it's part of the game. You just have to be wise to it and on your A-game at all times."
Is there anything that you would like to see the band accomplish in the long-term that it hasn't already?
"Pete always says that we strive be one of the gilded bands like Green Day or U2 and I don't think that that's a thing that really has a road map to it. It's just something that happens. It'd be awesome to be part of that world but at the same time everything we have gotten to do has been beyond expectations. I'm just happy that I still get to be in a band with my best friends, make music, tour the world, and play to people who care and connect for the right reasons. I've known that I've wanted [this] since I was five and first heard Metallica. That's all I've ever wanted."
Fall Out Boy will be performing at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion (405 Neil Ave.) on Wednesday, May 13. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.promowestlive.com.
Originally Published: May 1, 2009
