I went to the Fall Out Boy (FOB) concert last night. I have two words: ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

Before I start with the Fall Out Boy praise, let me begin with the SA bands that opened for FOB.

Harris Tweed were phenomenal. The music they play is well rounded, proffesional and has international appeal for sure. They have a different take on music and have a very South African flair to their music. They were joined on stage by some friends of mine who played strings (Violin and Cello). Courtenay and Hannah were incredible and added a great angle to the music. You guys rocked.


Harris tweed rocking out and Courtenay on the right playing Violin

J played a sterling set that had a touch of The Fray, Coldplay and Snow Patrol. I hate to compare local talent to international bands, but it was very clear in my little mind. This is a band to look out for.

Following J was Fevertree. I have played on stage with Fevertree in the past, but this was not that band. This band featured 2 new members out of the three original members. So the approach to their music has changed somewhat. They went from a very a very christian rock band to a very Greenday, pissed off, manliner (eye-liner for men) type of sound. They were great but a carbon copy of many other bands out there in the punk rock world.

Love Jones finished off the SA contingency. They are a great band and have huge potential I think. They were strange though and I think lost the crowd a bit with their aggressive, in your face sound.

And then came FOB. From song one to the last song and hour and a half later they rocked and rocked and rocked a bit more. They played only one show in SA and last night was it. They also noted that the Jo’burg concert will be the biggest crowd that they play to the entire year. I think there were close to 20 000 people in the audience. I am sure that was the biggest crowd that all of the SA bands have played to.

Many people had said a lot about the FOB live performance, I myself saw them on MTV Live and thought I was in for trouble. But low and behold, the lead singer can actually sing, the drummer can rock and the guitarist and bassist really do spin around like they do in the music videos. My only criticism was that Pete, the bassist, would not shut up. He went on about Americans not being all that bad, about this and that after every two or three songs. They almost lost a lot of the audience due to this but every time they started off another song everyone went absolutely mad.

My advice for people who want to go and see any band live is to listen to the bands music for a while before the concert. This was my saving grace and made my evening a millions times better than many of the people around me. I knew every song except for two and jumped and bounced to almost every song I knew. What a party.