Gut Reactions (post-gig memories and other trips): Fall Out Boy, "So Much for (Tour) Dust" UK tour. OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Saturday 28th October 2023

I've liked Fall Out Boy for years, enjoying their catchy anthems and quirky style of American rock. This was my first time seeing them live, though, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Upon arrival at the venue, I couldn't access my ticket, my worst pre-gig nightmare. Despite checking my Ticketmaster app before I left, I got the message 'Something went wrong, try again in a few minutes'. Repeated attempts brought the same response. I restarted my phone with no joy. My signal was poor so I left the queue and wandered closer to the main SEC to draw on their free WiFi and re-downloaded the app. Fortunately, this time it loaded properly and I could sign in. Back into the queue, which, despite its length, moved swiftly, the security frisk little more than a wave of the wand. Ticket scanned, wristband attached, I was inside. A quick glance towards the merch stall didn't fill me with the urge to buy anything so on I went past security into the standing area.

Before it got busy

As the band have been around since 2001, I wasn't expecting the audience demographic to be so Gen Z (14-26). Their mass presence changed the room's whole dynamic. They were drinking but they weren't drunk. Most were polite, not jostling too closely, despite it being packed. Everyone was on their phone, taking group selfies and messaging mates at lightning speed. They had sticky-out earplugs and designer haircuts, Halloween adding a further element of costume to their makeup, hair colours and clothing. The girls had tattoos aplenty and whenever any of their party left the group to go to the toilet or bar, the tallest one always left their phone torch on, pointing towards the back of the hall as a beacon to draw them safely back. It was annoying getting a torch shone in your face but at least you knew the person pushing past was legitimately getting back to their pals.

The downside to this was that I was the only old man in the room, old enough to be everyone's grandpa. The grey in my beard was not a Halloween affectation. When I was their age, I was scared of young girls and am even more so now. I had to make sure I didn't accidentally touch any of them for fear of being labelled a perv. Plus, I doubted if any of them would have remained away had they contracted Covid (the tickets cost over £70) so this was Ground Zero for me. Every cough and sneeze around me made me wish I'd made the effort to renew my booster shot.

It got busy fast but I had an okay view except for one tall bloke whose hairstyle looked like a burgeoning soufflé growing from the top of his head. He stood between me and the central microphone stand so catching the lead singer was going to be difficult.

Fortunately, the first act, "nothing,nowhere", did not spend much time in that position, prowling the stage from side to side, microphone stuck to his face, telling us repeatedly (when not rapping/singing) to make some fucking noise. His music is heavily influenced by Linkin Park. He even paid tribute to their deceased lead singer, Chester Bennington (who reached out to him at the start of his career to set him on this journey), before covering their song, One Step Closer. Despite the heaviness of the bass sound (strong enough to both crush your chest and perform CPR), I liked him. Plenty of attitude and a heavy sound. A big tick from me.

PVRIS (pronounced Paris) was not so appealing. A bit more electronic, I didn't warm to her performance. Her vocals were good but did not particularly stand out. When the band rocked together as one unit, I got into them but that was only on a few tracks. The girls and boys around me seemed to know a lot of her lyrics and gave her a warm response. She just wasn't for me.

Next up: Fall Out Boy.

Building us up with The Middle by Jimmy Eats World, then teasing us with a play of their cover of the Billy Joel song, We Didn't Start The Fire (with updated lyrics), the lights went down and the spoken word track The Pink Seashell played, raising the anticipation. The band burst onto the stage with album opener, Love from the Other Side, and the party began.

The audience appreciation was louder than anything I'd experienced for a long while, so many young lungs screaming out. They all sang along and, notably, took videos of the action. I'd never seen so many audience cameras in the air at the same time.

And that was when I knew I was one of them. I take pictures. I take videos. I sing along. This was my kind of gig. Age didn't matter.

The gig was superb. The band threw in everything: pyros, fireworks, bubble machines, streamer and confetti cannons, transparent beach balls and a dynamic stage set that changed during the show. They even had a massive suspended dog head whose mouth moved. The staging element was so clever. Bringing out the red curtain as a backdrop gave those songs a school prom feel while allowing the stagehands time to swap out the physical set behind the band. The circle-shaped screen above them constantly changed. They even lowered the lighting rig at one point to give the gig a club feel.

I loved this concert so much. I felt rejuvenated afterwards, humming the tunes in my head as I stepped across the sticky floor out of the arena, my knees no longer aching. I even queued at the merch stall to buy a baseball cap (and I haven't bought any band merch, bar the occasional programme, in years).