“Our audience loves all things Fall Out Boy,” said Jack Isquith, executive producer of AOL Music Live. “They have a very strong online presence, and that contributes to a strong personal connection with their fans. They're a great band, and the Roxy show was one of our biggest online rock events ever.”
Minutes after the high-spirited concert finished, comments flowed in from all over the place, showing that FOB fans are nothing if not passionate. “Thank you. This was the best hour of my week — and I really mean it,” one snowed-in boy posted from the Midwest.
Along with sharply crafted songs, pointed lyrics, a terrific singer in Stump and a positive, life-affirming stage act, Fall Out Boy has a homegrown media star in the extroverted Wentz, whose dark, moody good looks are accentuated by habitual use of guyliner. His love life has reportedly included close encounters with Ashlee Simpson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Trachtenberg and Nicole Richie. “I have ADD (attention deficit disorder) as far as dating goes,” he said. “I've ended up having good friendships with all these people, but we haven't really had relationships.”
Wentz, 27, has clearly enjoyed some good friendships. Cell-phone photos of his personal, er, fall out boy, have widely circulated on the Internet. Wentz told Rolling Stone magazine yup the pics are all him, but the only fallout came from his mom, in an e-mail that said, “Be more careful next time.”
Wentz (who also has a clothing line and Decaydance record label) and the other three FOBs have essentially been touring nonstop for two years. In 2005, they dominated the Vans Warped and Nintendo Fusion package tours, then headlined their first major market arena trek the next spring. And the band has just announced it will headline the 44-city 2007 Honda Civic Tour, supported by +44 (featuring Honda Civic Tour alumnae Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus, formerly of blink-182), The Academy Is, rapper Paul Wall and Cobra Starship.
Even with a jaunt through Australia and Europe coming up next month before the April start of the Honda tour, Stump says Fall Out Boy doesn't plan to take much of a break at all.
“I have no patience for those types that ignore their art,” he said. “Those celebrities who forget what they're supposed to be celebrated for and end up just going to restaurants and Hollywood parties — that's (junk). If you're going to make art you want to be proud of, you've got to care about making it.”
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