Fall Out Boy – **** (Live In Phoenix)

Believe it or not, Fall Out Boy used to have some major respect in the punk scene. Their break out album, Take This To Your Grave, was hailed as a pop-punk gem. But since then the band has steadily gone down hill. From being sued for stealing lyrics, to dealing with naked pictures leaking online with some outrageous claims of being the biggest band in rock, Fall Out Boy (and Pete Wentz particularly) continually dug themselves into a bigger hole with each passing moment and they show no sign of stopping. In fact, the band craves the attention and used all that negative press as the story line for one of their videos – you know, the one before they tried to be funny with a talking monkey.

But all of that really has no direct impact on **** (Live In Phoenix) – other than the obvious pun to lace Fall Out Boy with as many four letter expletives as possible – and you’re forced to listen to the foursome’s first ever live release with an open mind. After all, the antics of the band should not play a role on the music of the band so this could be okay.

It’s just too bad it isn’t.

From front to back, **** is incredibly painful to listen to. Opening up with a horrendous introduction that merges the crowd’s screams with marching drums and awful Jay-Z sound clips, **** irritates you right from the start. The band is never able to leave that state of irritation either for two reasons: the horrible sound quality and bad, bad vocal delivery from Patrick Stump and Wentz.

The sound quality is far too smooth and nondescript. It lacks a punch of authority or individuality as nothing is remotely prominent in the mix and the vocals are continually far too low. You yearn for the gloss of the studio once again because at least then it is properly mixed. As it is, it’s made to be blasted loudly but is a wimpy, wimpy sound with no identity. The only song with a slight tinge of identity is the studio version of Michael Jackson‘s Beat It featuring John Mayer; but its haphazard placement in the middle of the CD makes no sense whatsoever and only serves to remind the listener what they’re missing out on.

However, I doubt even a solid sound recording could properly save this record because **** proves what many have been saying for a long time: Fall Out Boy just aren’t a good live band. Patrick Stump’s vocals are abnormally painful – and this coming from a guy who has enjoyed Simple Plan live on a few occasions. Off pitched and nasally, Stump is unable to reach any of the notes “he” reached in the studio and instead delivers numerous cringe worthy moments. For his part, Wentz doesn’t help the case either as he consistently feels the need to put in his two cents through a grunt or a scream that disrupts the flow of the song instead of adding anything to it.

What Island was thinking when they okayed **** is a mystery because **** is just that – shit. The sound quality is crap, the performance is crap, the useless screams are crap and no matter how awesome the DVD portion of this disc may be, I have no inclination to watch it after hearing the CD version.