Need weekend plans?
The best things to do around the city, delivered to your inbox.
Boston Calling 2025: Fall Out Boy thanks fans for the memories with fiery, career-spanning set
The nostalgia-filled set took Fall Out Boy's pop-punk/rock fans on a journey across just over two decades of music.
Will Fall Out Boy be remembered for “Centuries“? Only time will tell, but Saturday’s career-spanning Boston Calling set certainly made the case for it.
Over the course of one hour and 45 minutes, the Chicago rock band truly thanked fans for the memories, as it played songs off of each of its eight studio albums.
Fiery pyrotechnics, including some attached to the end of Pete Wentz’s bass, lit up the stage. But the band’s talents — Patrick Stump’s lead vocals, Joe Trohman’s guitar playing, Andy Hurley’s drumming, and Wentz’s crowd interactions and overall stage presence — are what truly sparked the crowd’s energy.
Advertisement:
The nostalgia-filled set took Fall Out Boy’s pop-punk/rock fans on a journey across just over two decades of music. (Think: Eras Tour for the kids that grew up with Warped Tour.)
Boston Calling 2025:
The screens flashed various montages of Fall Out Boy through the years, taking the audience back to the early 2000s when Blackberry phones and deep side part hairstyles were the hype.
“We’re truly so thankful to be able to be here, 20 years later or whatever,” Wentz said at one point during the show, noting that the band survived all these years because fans continued to show up.
Such gratitude and related montages seemed to be a theme Saturday night, with Avril Lavigne also reminiscing over her more than 20 years on the pop-punk scene.
Advertisement:
Over the course of Fall Out Boy’s performance, crew members quickly swapped out sets and imagery on the screens to take fans through each album era.
Prior to first taking the stage, Stump appeared on screen, emerging from a hospital bed next to a doctor reviewing his chart. Easing into the first few lines of “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes,” Stump sang, “Doc, there’s a hole where something was / Doc, there’s a hole where something was…”
The music then switched as the blue-tinted brick wall from the cover of the band’s first album, “Take This to Your Grave,” appeared on the screens.
From there, Fall Out Boy smoothly transitioned from one album to the next with the set changing to feature elements of each album’s theme: the theater feel of “From Under the Cork Tree”; the winged sheep from “Infinity on High”; the bears from “Folie à Deux”; flames and phoenix sounds for “Save Rock and Roll”; dark colors and American flags for “American Beauty/American Psycho”; waves and purple effects for “Mania”; and stars, bubbles, and the split smiley/frowny face from “So Much (for) Stardust.”
The crowd’s energy peaked when Fall Out Boy moved into “From Under the Cork Tree,” with fans singing at the top of their lungs to hits including “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Dance, Dance.”
Advertisement:
During the band’s “American Beauty/American Psycho” section of the show, dancers clad in black and white “FOB” cheerleading outfits and hockey masks painted with black stars and stripes eerily waved pompoms along to “Uma Thurman,” “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” and “Immortals.”
Fall Out Boy also made sure to weave some local elements into its show, including adding the instrumental intro to “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” by Dropkick Murphys to its song “Bang the Doldrums.”
Stump also took the piano for a couple of solos. First, he performed “Golden” and then, just as he fittingly did at Fenway Park in 2023, a partial cover of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
Now, as much as Boston loves belting the “so good” lyrics at Red Sox games, the crowd, including myself, could have done without this moment. While I don’t hate “Sweet Caroline,” there is something about that song playing outside of Fenway Park that gives me the same forced-grin embarrassment as watching a parent sing in public.
After a couple of songs off the band’s latest album, “So Much (for) Stardust,” Wentz consulted a magic eight-ball on the big screen to decide whether the band should keep playing. The ball encouraged the music to keep going, as did the crowd, with Fall Out Boy moving next to “Fame < Infamy.”
Advertisement:
Wrapping up the night, Fall Out Boy closed with “Centuries,” as imagery from all eight studio albums appeared on the screen in a timewarp fashion, and “Saturday,” a common finale song for the band and a fitting theme for the day.
Fall Out Boy closed out its nostalgia-filled set on Day 2 of Boston Calling with “Saturday” as Pete Wentz, suspended in the air, released balloons and worked the crowd. @boston.com
— Heather Alterisio (@heathalt.bsky.social) May 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
[image or embed]
Setlist for Fall Out Boy at Boston Calling, Saturday, May 24, 2025:
Intro
“Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes” (First few lines with Patrick Stump in hospital bed backstage)
‘Take This to Your Grave’
“Chicago is So Two Years Ago”
“Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy”
‘From Under the Cork Tree’
“Sugar, We’re Goin Down”
“Dance, Dance”
“A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More ‘Touch Me'”
“Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows)”
‘Infinity on High’
“This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”
“Thriller”
“Bang the Doldrums” (instrumental intro of “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” by Dropkick Murphys)
“Thnks fr th Mmrs”
‘Folie à Deux’
‘Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes”
“I Don’t Care”
‘Save Rock and Roll’
“The Phoenix”
“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”
‘American Beauty/American Psycho’
“Uma Thurman”
“The Kids Aren’t Alright”
“Immortals”
‘M A N I A’
“The Last of the Real Ones”
Patrick Stump solos on the piano
“Golden”
“Sweet Caroline” (Neil Diamond cover)
‘So Much (for) Stardust’
“So Much (for) Stardust”
“Love from the Other Side”
Finale
“Fame < Infamy” (magic eight-ball song)
“Centuries”
“Saturday”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com