Live Review: Fall Out Boy

Emerging from a hiatus that kept them quiet for the better part of three years, pop punk heroes Fall Out Boy have a renewed energy. In Australia this week for two club shows on the back of their new single My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Them Up), the band were near-perfect in their execution in the first of the shows, with their fanbase out of hibernation in rabid fashion.

A rammed Metro pulsated with sweat and devotion the moment the four-piece took to the stage, and with a set list that covered the band's wealth of hits every word was sung back to the band onstage with interest. It was This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race, I Don't Care, Dance, Dance and Thnks Fr Th Mmrs that received the biggest – deafening – responses and when there's so much energy coming from the first 20 rows you can't nit-pick a performance. They're consummate professionals and showmen and tonight they showcased that, proving as well that they're at ease with each other on stage.

Bassist and lyric writer Pete Wentz was restrained – we'll wait to see if he's matured as well – while handling the bulk of the crowd-banter responsibilities. He seems content in the knowledge that frontman Patrick Stump puts more urgency and passion into his words than he ever could and he's willing to take a side-seat a lot of the time. Stump himself has come out of his solo jaunt looking leaner and at 27 his voice has hits its stride. His soul and R&B tendencies make him one of the most unique frontmen in the genre and outside of the sound mix he was hard to fault.

The whole performance – about an hour and a half's worth – was very managed. They wheeled out hit after hit and reproduced them from the recorded version. That was enough tonight, where the diehards just clamouring for a glimpse, but when the inevitable album tour comes around they'll need to mess with the formation, something a band with this much ambition and confidence won't have trouble doing.

Their new album is presumptuously titled Save Rock And Roll, but Fall Out Boy may convert too much more than what they've got. Vitally, though, it looks as if the comeback is saving themselves.