Gig played on 26/05/06

Say what you like about touts - launch a self righteous campaign if you must - but they are handy barometers of a band's genuine popularity as opposed to media hype. And when they sell tickets at a drastically reduced price for a sold out show, it generally means they've bought heavily on the basis of hysteria only to see the reality totally underperform. So it proves tonight for Fall Out Boy, who arrive on these shores burdened with massive Stateside success and a press furore far greater than their sales warrant.

Not that those who have come tonight care, an absurdly young crowd gripped with the religious fervour of the true youth cult. Fall Out Boy are neither the best nor the worst of the pop punk crowd, but only a fool would deny they've made a connection - everyone seems to know each dense, witty, tricky lyric. Like Green Day, the band have perfected the art of taking introspective, thematically complex material and wrapping it up in a gleeful, showbizzy pantomime.

It's a pantomime led by bassist Pete Wentz, almost as divisive a public figure as Pete Doherty, adored by those who see him as energetic and articulate, despised by those who see him as a cynic and opportunist. On tonight's evidence, the former would seem more fitting, his onstage banter sincere, charismatic and witty. "The people who are bullies are bullies for their entire f*cking lives," he spits, to wild whooping. Throughout the show he and guitarist Joseph Trohman compete with each other to throw the most rocking of shapes, or clear the most speaker stacks with one leap. Their enthusiasm cannot help but be infectious, although it does reduce singer Patrick Stump to a mumbling mannequin in their presence. However, his powerful, granite voice is ample compensation.

Sadly, on a musical level - and hampered by a horrible sound system - Fall Out Boy don't live up to the buzz, their two-speeds-fit-all pop punk lacking the variety or ingenuity to engage for this lengthy a period. In the Pixies / Nirvana mode, the songs employ bass-heavy slower verses followed by roaring, rippingly fast choruses. It can work well - single "Sugar, We're Going Down" presses all the right anthemic buttons and "Honorable Mention" has rollercoaster pace and a juicy chorus. But too much of the material is all song title and no song, like the sludgy "Our Lawyers Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued".

But Fall Out Boy - like the film of "The Da Vinci Code" - seem unshakably confident and unstoppable right now, no matter the carping of the critics. They are unlikely to match their stateside megasuccess here, but their sales will close the gap with their profile.

by Jaime Gill