The crowd that gathered for the final festival headliner could be described as large, young, mostly female and very passionate. How passionate? When I first arrived at the photo pit between the front of the stage and The Stand, the first thing I noticed about that reserved SRO section was that it was already packed to the gills with enthusiastic fans.
Then in checking out the stage setup, I realized my best vantage point for taking pictures, i.e., standing on one of the fold-down seats in front of The Stand, would have me obscuring the view of whichever avid concertgoer happened to be behind me. So I turned to the woman I’d most likely be blocking and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll only be here for three songs.”
She shot me a horrified look and wailed “Three songs???”
So needless to say, when alt-rockers Fall Out Boy took to the stage, the reaction was immediate and loud. So loud, the band’s amps almost couldn’t keep up. But frontman Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz , guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley soldiered on, playing mighty hits such as “Sugar We’re Going Down Swinging”, “Centuries”, “Alone Together”, “Thnks fr th Mmrs” (text-speak for “Thanks for the Memories”) and the group’s latest single, “Uma Thurman”, a song that’s been all over every kind of radio all summer long. All in all, a very spirited way to end a very spirited festival…
