Fall Out Boy deliver arena-sized emo spectacle in Pittsburgh show

Two of the three covers Fall Out Boy chose for their show in Pittsburgh could not have been more appropriate.

Late in their set Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena, the emo titans channeled the stadium rock energy of Queen with “Don’t Stop Me Now” and then Blur’s “Song 2,” one of the most unlikely sports anthems.

With their So Much for (2our) Dust stop here, Fall Out Boy delivered a full-on, celebratory arena rock show. The show included a pro light show, perfectly timed fireworks and pyro. Even bassist Pete Wentz got into the act, with flames shooting from the end of his guitar on several songs.

And let’s not forget the man dressed in a bunny suit and another dressed in a snail costume … or the bubble machine and fake snow … or the massive inflatable dog head, whose mouth would open to apparently sing along on the choruses.

It was a spectacle, in all the right ways, with the special effects enhancing the performance, which had the majority of the crowd standing from the moment a taped version of their updated version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” began playing. Whether it was clapping along to “Uma Thurman” or belting out the “whoa oh oh” in “Bang the Doldrums” or turning their phone lights pink for “Fake Out,” the crowd was definitely invested all night.

The show spanned Fall Out Boy’s career, with two songs from their 2003 debut “Take This to Your Grave” all the way up to five songs from last year’s “So Much (for) Stardust.”

A lot of arena tours don’t change from night to night, so it was refreshing to see Fall Out Boy shake it up several times from the past few shows. Before the massive hits of the encore, they have a spot for a Magic 8 Ball moment that called for an old B-Side, so they played a punky “The Music or the Misery,” which they haven’t played live since 2006.

And for the first time, singer Patrick Stump busted out a piano cover of Punchline’s “Heart Transplant,” in honor of the Pittsburgh band with whom they shared many a stage. “We used to play Club Laga with them a million times,” said Stump, who was gamely battling a cold. (That wasn’t the only Pittsburgh nod, as Wentz referenced Mario Lemieux twice.)

But it was the hits and their big choruses that resonated the most. “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” came third in the night, with an electric “Dance, Dance” arriving near the end — Wentz had done a disappearing/magic trick at the end of “Baby Annihilation” and appeared on a platform in the middle of the audience for this one.

The final four songs — they didn’t try a fake “encore” — started off with “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up),” which did just that, with pyro, explosions and more flames from Wentz’s bass. “Thnks fr the Mmrs,” with more fireworks and many hands clapping, preceded “Centuries,” arguably their biggest. And then they finished with 2003’s “Saturday,” their long-time finale in a nice tip of the cap to their past.

Fall Out Boy may be one of the Big Three of emo now, but their direct support act of Jimmy Eat World is one of the biggest influences in the genre. “We would not be the band we are without a band called Jimmy Eat World,” Wentz would say later in the night.

With golden hooks, Jimmy Eat World put on a satisfying performance of tracks new and old.

On the newer end, singer/guitarist Jim Adkins described their self-released “Something Loud” from 2022 as “a song about finding yourself in rock and roll.”

Other highlights included an emotional “Hear You Me,” with Adkins on acoustic guitar, followed by the banging “Pain.” Of course, songs from 2001’s “Bleed American,” like “Sweetness,” received the strongest response, with the closing “The Middle” bringing the audience to its feet.

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Hot Mulligan, which sold out the Roxian Theatre in November, blasted through 30 minutes of a harder-edged post-emo as the Michigan band’s star continues to rise.

With song titles like “Drink Milk and Run,” “Shouldn’t Have a Leg Hole but I Do” and “John ‘The Rock’ Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker,” Hot Mulligan didn’t seem to take itself too seriously, but the music hit hard as singer Nathan Sanville banged his head and whipped his hair.

“We write songs, and I yell, and that’s kind of the whole gist of the thing,” Sanville quipped. “If you’re not into that, (expletive) off. If you are, stick around.”

Los Angeles-based/New Jersey-born CARR opened the show, dropping an impressive amount of profanity into her 20-minute set, which included the live debut of her latest single, “Hot Dads.”