Fall Out Boy

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• Genre: Emo
• Hometown: Chicago
• Fall Out Boy Website

About

Clever emo/pop-punk outfit Fall Out Boy rose from the ashes of several hard-core bands, in the throes of suburban ennui in Wilmette, Illinois. The band's cathartic live shows -- a carryover from their days of rocking the mosh pit -- at venues like the Knights of Columbus Hall earned the boys a solid Midwestern fan base, but it was their hybrid, Green Day-with-a-dream-journal sound that sparked a small but respectable bidding war to sign them. The band, now comprised of founding members Pete Wentz (bass/lyrics) and Joe Trohman (guitar), vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, and drummer Andy Hurley, cut a handful of EPs and two full-lengths for small labels (New Zealand's Uprising Records and the Florida-based Fueled By Ramen). While they were still working on their second album, Island Records gave the band an advance to start their third and sent them on a 280-day tour. The band's exhausting schedule didn't help Wentz's anxiety disorder, and he ended up overdosing on Ativan. While Wentz recovered, the rest of the band had to finish a UK tour with a substitute, which forced them to learn not to rely on Wentz's dynamic stage presence and become stronger stage performers. In 2007, Fall Out Boy released their third album on Island.

- Rachel Devitt