“So Much For 2our Dust” Lights Up Nashville

In case you missed it, the Easter Sunday Service for emo kids was held at Nashville’s own Bridgestone Arena at the “So Much For 2our Dust”. Believe it or not, the Easter Bunny even made an appearance for two songs (instead of the usual one) as a special on-stage guest. Sampling from every era of their discography, but highlighting their newest album “So Much for Stardust ”, Fall Out Boy put together an insurmountable thirty-song setlist. 15,000 fans flooded downtown Nashville to see the iconic band composed of Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, and Joe Trohman. Fan projects, secret “Magic 8 Ball” songs, and friendship bracelets — this is Fall Out Boy’s “Era’s Tour” for the emo kids at heart. How often do major rock headliners like Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy get to play the same stage post-warped tour?

The band is just as committed to cultivating the experience as the fans are. Bringing every track to life, inferno-heavy tracks like “The Phoenix” and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark” were accompanied by tear-inducing pyrotechnics and Pete Wentz’s flame-shooting bass guitar. As we dug deeper into the So Much For Stardust setlist, the band transformed the arena into a snow globe. Snow machines on all corners of the arena, larger than life canine puppets, and mystic forest set pieces took center stage as the band piloted the crowd through the “So Much for Stardust” universe. “You can look out into the world and admire the sun and admire everything beautiful under it, or you can look out with the perspective that one day the sun is going to explode and everything we know will dissipate… This album is written from the latter perspective.”  spoke Pete Wentz on the band’s psyche writing this album. Everyone has moments they wish they could bottle up and freeze in time, as we get older we start collecting more and more of these memories like snow globes on a shelf. 

Patrick Stump’s vocal performance did not falter. Fall Out Boy has had decades of touring with hits from every era circulating their setlists, their frontman keeps innovating when it comes to embodying fan favorites like “Sugar We’re Going Down” and “Thnks fr th Mmrs”. Stump keeps classic hits fresh by using the songs he’s mastered to experiment and show the full extent of his abilities. The Nashville fan project “Stardust” lit up Bridgestone Arena’s crowd pink, an ode to the track “Pink Seashell.” As Patrick began the ballad “Fake Out” every seat in the audience held their phone flashlight up to a pink paper slip to show their love for the boys putting on a killer show. Before ending the show with iconic hits “Centuries” and “Saturday” came the Magic 8 ball moment in the set, where a surprise song was played. Nashville was graced with “Jet Pack Blues” from the album “American Beauty/American Psycho”, the first full performance of the song since 2018, closing out the distinct hype and significance of the night.

- Isabella Ellis

Photos Courtesy of Kylie Hoover (For Bell Music Magazine)