Black clouds and underdogs...

Welcome to my Fall Out Boy shrine! My favorite band of all time! Major WIP, bear with me.

Who is Fall Out Boy??

Fall Out Boy is an emo band that formed in Chicago in 2001! It includes Patrick Stump (vocals/guitar), Joe Trohman (guitar), Pete Wentz (bass), and Andy Hurley (drums).

Fall Out Boy came out of the Chicago hardcore scene as a side project, but ended up taking off in its own right as a pop punk group. Their name comes from The Simpsons, which has a joke superhero character called Fallout Boy. The band began with Pete and Joe, whose main project at the time was a metal band called Arma Angelus. They met Patrick--a drummer at the time--in a Borders bookstore, and he joined the group. With a rotating cast of drummers, they recorded a collection of songs (Evening Out With Your Girlfriend), but they weren't satisfied with how they came out. They got Andy, who was in another band with Pete, to drum for them, and everything clicked. They made their first studio album, Take This To Your Grave, in 2003, and the rest is history!

The Band!

Patrick Stump

The lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist! He got his musical start playing drums for local Chicago hardcore bands when he was a teenager/young adult, including Public Display Of Infection, Xgrinding processX, and Patterson. Besides being Fall Out Boy's frontman, he's also had a solo career with the 2010 album Soul Punk. He's also made music for television/films, including The Lego Batman Movie and Spidey and His Amazing Friends! And I guess he's gonna be in Hazbin Hotel or whatever.

Pete Wentz

The bassist! He's also written most of Fall Out Boy's music. Before Fall Out Boy, he was in the bands First Born, Racetraitor, and Arma Angelus. Aside from Fall Out Boy, he was also in a ska duo with Bebe Rexha called Black Cards (??) from 2010-2012. He also founded the record label Decaydance and the brand Clandestine Industries. He's also had like a billion situationships with everybody in the emo scene or something. As if I even care about that ahaha.

Joe Trohman

The lead guitarist! He was also in Arma Angelus with Pete, but his first band was called Voices Still Heard, which was when he was a teenager. He hasn't had any other musical projects outside of Fall Out Boy since the band started, but he did make a Youtube series called Mondo Trasho (which I admittedly haven't seen) in 2020 that's about a band, and he had a podcast with Seth Green called I Hate Myself.

Andy Hurley

The drummer! Also famously straight-edge, anarcho-primitivist, and vegan. Though each member of Fall Out Boy started out as straight edge in their early careers (the Xs in their early band names indicate this), he's the only one to stay that way. He was in a lot of bands before Fall Out Boy, including Racetraitor (with Pete), Killtheslavemaster, xFor Death or For Gloryx, The Kill Pill, Project Rocket, and Arma Angelus (with Pete and Joe). During the hiatus, he played for metal band The Damned Things and the hardcore bands Enabler and FocusedXMinds.

The Albums!

These are just the studio albums, but further down I'll include other projects because a) I'm a completionist and b) they're really good.

Take This To Your Grave

May 6 2003

Fall Out Boy's debut (not including their first LP)! This album has the clearest influence from the hardcore scene, and is generally their heaviest/rawest album. Patrick's vocals are more typical of pop-punk singers, whereas later albums would have more soul-influenced singing from him (he has a soul voice...). This one's my second favorite album of Fall Out Boy's, though it's very close to the top for me!

Favorite tracks: Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over and Homesick at Space Camp

From Under The Cork Tree

May 3, 2006

The album that really skyrocketed Fall Out Boy's popularity in the pop punk/emo scenes! This got them on the radio (with the songs Sugar, We're Goin Down and Dance, Dance. This is also my personal favorite album! It retains some of the hardcore/heavier influences, but has a more polished sound and shows off more of Patrick's vocal range. Also starts (or furthers) the trend of having really long song titles.

Favorite tracks: Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner and A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me"

Infinity On High

January 1, 2007

A bit of a deviation from their previous work (as well as their longest album), Infinity On High incorporated more soul-inspired vocals and slower tempos. Still, it had mainstream success with the tracks Thnks fr the Mmrs and This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race. It technically had two discs, but the second disc only had five tracks, three of which were live recordings of disc 1 songs (which I didn't include here). This is also Mick's favorite! Shoutout Mick.

Favorite tracks: Bang The Doldrums and Hum Hallelujah

Folie à Deux

December 10, 2008

If Infinity On High was a deviation from their previous sound, Folie was a complete departure. It was more theatrical, more experimental, more influenced by funk. Critics and fans hated it when it came out, so much so that the band almost broke up, and they had to take a two year hiatus. I think that's insane, personally. At least in retrospect people agree that this album rules.

Favorite tracks: 27 and Tiffany Blews

Save Rock And Roll

April 12, 2013

Fall Out Boy's post-hiatus comeback! This album was filled with featured artists and pop influence, and also saw mainstream success. The main defining feature of this album was the fact that every single song had a music video, which formed a full movie, known as The Young Blood Chronicles. The plot kind of doesn't really make any sense, it's like about a group of women who are trying to destroy music and Patrick gets possessed or something? It's actually so dumb. But it's fun to watch and the music is good.

Favorite tracks: The Mighty Fall and Where Did The Party Go

American Beauty/American Psycho

January 16, 2015

The most mainstream successful, by virtue of having the tracks Centuries, Uma Thurman, and Immortals (all of which I will defend. Centuries is pretty overplayed but if it wasn't, it's not a bad song. I stand on that). This album definitely has a more pop rock feeling, though there are also some more ballad-like tracks here. People love to hate on this album, but I'll defend it. I don't care. Fall Out Boy doesn't have a single bad song.

Favorite tracks: Fourth Of July and Favorite Record

MANIA

January 19, 2018

Another one that people love to hate! MANIA was experimental, much like Folie, but this time it had a lot of EDM and R&B influence. Though MANIA isn't my top album, it's absolutely undervalued and I think every song on it is beautiful. MANIA is Fall Out Boy's shortest album, and was the last album released before the band's second hiatus (unoffical, it was just due to quarantine/Covid).

Favorite tracks: HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON'T and The Last Of The Real Ones

So Much (For) Stardust

March 24, 2023

The post-quarantine comeback album! This was somewhat of a return to the classic Fall Out Boy rock sound, and I think it's phenomenal. The album was the first release in years and years (a longer gap than their official hiatus was), and so getting this was such a thrill. It came out in my senior year of high school, and when I tell you it hit me and Mick like a truck... This was also the first time I got to see Fall Out Boy in concert, in Forest Hills! It was amazing. This album is amazing.

Favorite tracks: Fake Out and Heaven, Iowa

Other Releases

Evening Out With Your Girlfriend

March 25, 2003

The first mini LP that Fall Out Boy ever made! It's pretty bad, honestly. But it's fun. It was recorded in two days and most of the songs were rush writing jobs to fill time. Calm Before the Storm, though, got rerecorded and made it onto Take This To Your Grave, so it wasn't a complete bust.

Favorite track: Growing Up

My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue

January 1, 2005

This was an EP released while Fall Out Boy was working on From Under the Cork Tree. It includes two acoustic versions, a cover of a Joy Division song, and two new tracks (one of which would be a Cork Tree bonus track)

Favorite track: Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner (Acoustic)

Believers Never Die

January 1, 2009

This was a greatest hits compilation, but it included a few new songs as well as a rerecording of Growing Up (from Evening Out With Your Girlfriend) and a cover of Beat It with John Mayer. Here, I've only included the new songs + Growing Up, and not the rest, so this tracklist isn't really accurate. I just don't wanna repeat a bunch of Fall Out Boy songs that are already on here.

Favorite track: Alpha Dog

PAX AM Days

January 1, 2013

This was an EP released right before their comeback album. It was more hardcore/punk influenced and was recorded in two days, with most of the songs being created on the spot with producer Ryan Adams. They basically locked themselves in a room for two days and made this. And it rules.

Favorite track: Love, Sex, Death

Lake Effect Kid

August 23, 2018

This was an EP that came out after MANIA and was named after an old demo on a Folie-era mixtape. Not much to say! It's good!

Favorite track: Lake Effect Kid

Believers Never Die (Volume Two)

November 15, 2019

Another greatest hits, this time including the post-hiatus songs. Also included a Lil Peep song that Fall Out Boy was featured on, and two singles (which are the only ones I put here) which were both amazing! But again, not an actually accurate tracklist.

Favorite track: Bob Dylan

Other

Pavlove (December 16, 2008)

A demo made during the Folie à Deux era! It wasn't on Spotify for the longest time, but it's amazing.

We Didn't Start The Fire June 28, 2023

A cover of the Billy Joel song, but with stuff that's happened since 1989. It's like fine. But no one was asking for this sorry guys.

Start Today October 18, 2005

A cover of the Gorilla Biscuits song that they did for Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Rereleased on August 27, 2025. It's really good!

Fall Out Boy And ME!

I've loved Fall Out Boy since I was 12 (almost 8 years), and they've been my favorite band for at least half of that time! I discovered them on Youtube in middle school, since their music would get recommended under Panic's (which was the band I was most into at the time). I can't remember was the first song I heard specifically was, just that it was off of From Under the Cork Tree (my favorite album to this day)... I think it might have been Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year? It weirdly wasn't Sugar or Dance, Dance (though those came quick after). I was a fairly casual fan for a while, preferring Set it Off or Panic, but over time I fell more and more in love with their discography. By high school, they were tied with My Chemical Romance for my favorite band (I don't care that they're "basic" emo picks or whatever I grew up in a DC hardcore house I'm allowed) and would quickly overtake them.

My descent into Fall Out Boy obsession was aided and abetted by my longtime friend, Mick, an even bigger Fall Out Boy fan than me. They were sort of my emo guide, showing me a ton of music and teaching me a ton of history and lore. (They were the one who told me about Petekey, among other emo scandals). The first Fall Out Boy concert I went to was with them (and our bandmate) in the summer of 2023 (which was a long time after my obsession started, but they hadn't gone on tour in ages and ages). When SMFS was announced, Fall Out Boy partnered with a bunch of record stores to host early listening events, where people could gather and hear the album before it dropped. Me and Mick went to one in Hoboken, and it was one of the most fun experiences I had in high school. We made a bunch of friends and the album also happened to be amazing! Even though Fall Out Boy was already my favorite band, the release of So Much For Stardust totally cemented the obsession.

I've seen Fall Out Boy live three times! The first time was on August 1, 2023 at Forest Hills Stadium for the first leg of So Much For (Tour) Dust, the SMFS album tour. The openers were Games We Play, Royal & The Serpent, and Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH was easily the best one by far). It was a total whirlwind of a day, since we woke up at 5AM in order to get barricade and waited outside in line for about 8 hours before we were even let inside. But it was so worth it, because we DID get barricade, and we ran into a bunch of people we'd met in Hoboken! They played a ton of songs off of Cork Tree (including 7 Minutes in Heaven and A Little Less 16 Candles, two of my absolute favorites), which was honestly a bit of a surprise, since earlier tours had mainly focused on the radio hits, and less on earlier songs. We got two different 8 balls (surprise songs at the end of the set that were different for every location), which were 27 (My favorite Folie song) and I Am My Own Muse (the first time they'd ever played it live!). It was absolutely amazing. Plus, in the middle of the set, they brought out Travie Mccoy, lead singer of Gym Class Heroes, and sang Stereo Hearts together! Gym Class Heroes were a Decaydance band, and have a long history with Fall Out Boy, so it was such a cool surprise. Full setlist here!

The second time I saw Fall Out Boy was for the second leg of So Much For (Tour) Dust, at Madison Square Garden on March 22, 2024. Again, I went with Mick, as well as our friend Mac. It was actually the first time we'd ever met Mac (she was the best friend of one of our college friends, who suggested that we link up at this concert, since we all loved Fall Out Boy), but now we're incredibly close friends, and have gone to many, many concerts together! This concert was a highlight of a pretty bad year of my life, my freshman year of college. I was stuck at a school that I hated with pretty much no social life, and getting to see my favorite band with one of my best friends (and someone who would become one of my best friends) was exactly what I needed to get me out of that funk. (I've since transferred schools and go to college with Mick and am a lot happier, yay!). The openers were Games We Play, Hot Mulligan, and Jimmy Eat World: my favorite was Hot Mulligan, though Jimmy Eat World was a close second! Sorry to Games We Play. I don't really like them that much. This setlist was AMAZING. We got the tour debuts of XO and Tell That Mick (Mick's namesake), as well as Calm Before the Storm, one of my early favorite songs. Patrick also played the theme song he wrote for Spidey and his Amazing Friends which was cool, and they brought out Daisy Grenade to sing Just One Yesterday. The 8balls were Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (which I was INCREDIBLY happy about), and Slow Down, which is a song by The Academy Is, another Decaydance band, fronted by William Beckett! He came out to sing with Patrick, and we all freaked out. It was an amazing night. Full setlist here!

The third (and most recent) time I saw Fall Out Boy was at Riot Fest 2024, at which they headlined the first day! This was a hell of a trip, since it was in Chicago, and I go to school in DC, but it was Fall Out Boy headlining in their hometown, and the lineup for Day 2 was really good, too, so we made the trip. Me, Mac, and Mick stayed with a family friend of Mick's, once again committing to getting barricade. What followed was a crazy series of events that aren't necessarily all FOB-related, but I'm gonna tell them anyway cause it's funny. We woke up early and lined up outside to wait for the gates to open. Fall Out Boy went on late in the night, so we had a long while to wait. Me and Mac went to grab breakfast at a nearby Dunkin Donuts, which I guess stole my credit card somehow, because when we got back in line, I got a notice from my bank that there were fraudulent purchases on my account. So I had to cancel my credit card at the very beginning of a three day trip in a city I don't know. I ended up owing Mick a lot of money but I paid them back in the end (sorry Mick). Once we got inside, we made a dash for the stage that Fall Out Boy would be at. They wouldn't go on until late in the night, and it wasn't even noon yet, but we were committed to being at barricade when they did, so we got to our place and stayed there for about 9 hours in the direct sunlight. We didn't leave that spot for the rest of the day, except one trip Mick made to get merch (something that would come in handy later) and water. All we ate was the Dunkin from before, some suspicious pizza that was getting passed around the pit, and copious amounts of water that security was handing to people. The bands that we saw before FOB at our stage and the neighboring stage were Action/Adventure, Winona Fighter, Polaris, The Warning, Poison the Well, The Aces, State Champs, Hot Mulligan, New Found Glory, Sum 41, and The Offspring. My favorites were State Champs, Sum 41, and The Offspring (somewhere on Mick's phone is a truly terrible video of me screaming the lyrics to Pretty Fly for a White Guy). All of the sets were great, but we were in it for Fall Out Boy. And boy did they deliver. They started with Take This To Your Grave, with Chicago is So Two Years Ago (due to Chicago), which is one of my favorite FOB songs ever, and not one that I ever would have expected them to play. For the Cork Tree segment, we got 16 Candles and Get Busy Living, both of which I was ecstatic to see a second time live. Then we got to the Infinity on High segment. Mick's favorite song of all time is Thriller. It's not one that they ever thought they'd see live. But after Arms Race, the unthinkable happened. I thought Mick was going to pass out. Then, to follow it up, they played Bang the Doldrums, my favorite IOH song, and the one that was famously a) written about Mikey Way and b) off of their setlist rotation for years and years. The next songs were fairly predictable (still amazing tho) until after Uma Thurman, when they played The Kids Aren't Alright off of AP/AB, which is beautiful and incredibly underrated. We also got The Last of the Real Ones, which was a pleasant surprise, since they very rarely play Mania songs live anymore. Then we got to the interlude. Patrick started playing a cover of Sweet Home, Chicago, and I started to realize I was very, very nauseous. I didn't really think much of it for most of the concert, since that tends to happen when I go to concerts, but this was different. It must have been the fact that I'd barely eaten all day, that I'd been drinking a ton of water (but with no food), that I'd been in the sun for hours, and that I was standing directly in front of a very loud bass speaker that was vibrating my organs around. But in the middle of Patrick's medley, I leaned over the side of the barricade and threw up. Somehow, security let me stay in the pit (we begged them. Plus, it was just water. They definitely thought I was drunk tho). Thankfully, Mick had gotten me a shirt at the merch stand, so I was able to change into a clean one just in time for the Stardust section. Our 8 balls were Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet (objectively one of their best songs), and I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me, which is one of my FAVORITES, and a total surprise!! (I know I've said that about a lot of songs. But it's always true. Plus this is a Cork Tree deeper cut and it's so so so so good). It was a phenomenal show. I didn't even care that I'd thrown up. (Day 2 of Riot Fest was a lot more chill and we got to treat it like an actual music festival instead of a Fall Out Boy themed endurance test). Easily my favorite Fall Out Boy concert ever. Maybe my favorite CONCERT ever. It was amazing. And then I had to fly back and write a paper about Plato. Oh well. Full setlist here!

I really hope to see Fall Out Boy again soon! Hopefully for an album tour...? Pleeease drop a new album guys please I need it so bad. As of right now, I don't have tickets or plans to see them in the future, but I can promise you that the minute tickets go on sale for them again, I'll be in that queue ready to spend a stupid amount. I genuinely love Fall Out Boy and their music so much, they're so so so important to me! If you ever want any FOB recs, just hit my line, I'm your guy :)