Fall Out Boy fans label their current So Much For Stardust tour a ‘Healing Tour’, and take a trip down memory lane with their rotating setlist!
As Fall Out Boy’s second US leg tour for their 8th studio album So Much For Stardust reaches its end, Both fans, and the band themselves have been reflecting on the surprisingly loud feedback and impact that’s been made, and what this could mean for the future of the band.
Before the release of So Much For Stardust, the band had their 7th studio album, MANIA. When released, it was received with a lot of negativity and overall mixed feelings from fans and music critics. The band had gone for a different sound compared to what fans were accustomed to. The band took note of this feedback and gave a 5-year gap between MANIA and Stardust to come back even stronger with this album to nurture its sound and hit a rock feel that fans loved and were familiar with.
Fall Out Boy’s first leg of their ‘So Much For Stardust’ tour began June 21st – August 6th in the US, starting in their hometown, Chicago, with their big show at Wrigley Field! This first show was already expected to be something big since it was to be held at the iconic baseball stadium, but fans were in for a lot more than they could have ever thought of.
Fall Out Boy had introduced something huge on their first date that would take the band’s fandom by storm, and would cause one of the best snowball effects that both the band and fans could ever hope for, and it was also a big moment of realization for the band that caught them by surprise.
The Magic 8 Ball was a brand-new concept brought out for this tour. Right after performing “Hold Me Like a Grudge,” a song off the new album, bassist Pete Wentz would introduce the Magic 8 Ball. “We’ve now reached the Magic 8 Ball portion of the evening. Where dreams are made, sometimes hearts are broken.” He tells the crowd. He then proceeds to ask it maybe 1 or 2 random questions, with the last question vaguely hinting at what the next track could be, with Wrigley’s being “GINASFS,” the song’s first ever live debut since its release in 2008 from the album Infinity On High, and the last thing fans would ever expect the band to perform. This was of course only the start of the band’s stray from their usual setlist. With this 8 Ball segment came a string of Fall Out Boy performing songs that haven’t been performed in decades, unreleased demos and deep-cuts, and even bringing out other famous musical guests like William Beckett of The Academy Is, Mikey Way of My Chemical Romance, Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, and more to perform other iconic songs!
This continued with the European leg of the tour, and again once they returned with their second US leg that they cleverly named ‘2ourdust’! The band expressed their surprise at the 8 Ball feedback, explaining that they weren’t expecting some 8 Ball songs to get a reaction from the crowd, but each big reaction made them realize they could hit fans with anything, at any time, even without help from the 8 Ball and just throwing surprise songs throughout different parts of the show, and the fans went crazy for every bit of this, with the band even hitting the trending page on Twitter to reveal fans freaking out for the live performance for that nights song and seeing what they might’ve missed at that nights concert!
With each new and surprising song sprouting from a now constant rotating setlist, fans started referring to the tour as a ‘healing tour’, as the band seemed to be getting more comfortable with playing songs that weren’t received well or labeled as hits, this made them realize that they can expand more on their discography and stray away from just playing mainstream hits. “One night with the 8 Ball we played the song, “Bang The Doldrums,” that’s from Infinity On High. We didn’t think anything of it – “This would be a fun song to play in an 8 Ball!” The reaction was… so big, so different than we expected that it ended up in the regular rotation.”, Patrick Stump told ‘The Aquarian’ in an interview.
The entire tour seemed like a thank you gift to fans. As ‘2ourdust’ comes to an end, fans have been speculating a possible new leg for the tour. With small little hints and things being said, fans hope so! But also being understanding about the band needing to take a break since starting this albums tour in mid 2023. Overall, fans are incredibly grateful for all the Fall Out Boy content that they’ve been getting with this album. It truly feels like a new amazing era for Fall Out Boy has begun and we can’t wait to see and hear what they have in store next!
I am a photographer, musician, and cosplayer, based in Austin! I spend a lot of time traveling around for events, and am constantly creating things, listening to music, playing bass guitar, or finding new hobbies to indulge in. I love being surrounded by music, and you can almost always catch me listening to some emo or pop-punk music.
