Fall Out Boy at Echo Beach – September 15, 2013

Photographs by Katrina Wong Shue

On Sunday night, Echo Beach was definitely the place to be! Despite the rain, dedicated Fall Out Boy fans lined up all day in the hopes of staking out a good spot for the 5000 capacity sold out show.  After seeing Fall Out Boy in May at the Sound Academy, I was a little worried that the arena tour was going to be very similar – but boy, was I wrong! Even though the set list was very similar to their last Toronto show, the whole night the band was able to keep everyone on their toes. They opened up the night with ‘The Phoenix’, and appeared on stage wearing ski masks, similar to the ones seen in their music video, they also had the video playing in the background. After that, they wasted no time into busting out some of the fan favourites such as ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More “Touch Me”’ & ‘This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race ‘. It was also pretty surprising to see that they played ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’ fairly early on, when they usually leave it for closer to the end.

Half way through the set, they covered Drake’s ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ in their melody with ‘What A Catch, Donnie’ and ’20 Dollar Nose Bleed’ (which Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco came out to sing with them). Shortly after their melody they appeared at the back of the beach by the soundboard on a small second stage to perform some acoustic songs, which had fans further away from the stage running to try and get closer to the band.  It was really nice to see how Fall Out Boy managed to keep their fans engaged through the whole night and interact with them. What was also interesting about this show was the diverse crowd that came out. I even saw some kids around the age of 9 singing along at the top of their lungs with their parents near the back of the beach.

As the night came to a close, bassist Pete Wentz announced that since it was still raining, they were going to just play through the encore instead of leaving the stage then coming back after a bit. This didn’t stop all the fans from chanting for them to play another song. They ended the night with ‘Save Rock And Roll’ , ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ and ‘Saturday’. During ‘Saturday’, Wentz hopped up onto the barricade in his Fall Out Boy Toronto shirt and sang to the fans during his part. At the end of the night, seeing all the grinning faces leave Echo Beach, you could instantly tell how special this night was for so many fans.

Thanks to Live Nation for media access.