Fall Out Boy rolls with punches of fame

By Earnest A. Jasmin, for the Northwest Guardian

Let’s call it official.

The past year has seen Fall Out Boy reach ultra-heavy rotation on MTV and make a jarring leap from packed and sweaty nightclubs to headlining large arenas, including the Tacoma Dome where the Chicago rock outfit headlines Saturday.

At this point, it’s pretty safe to call Fall Out Boy the reigning kings of emo, the melodic, angsty and vaguely punk style of pop the band has helped popularize.

But don’t tell that to singer/guitarist Patrick Stump, who not only questioned that kind of pigeonholing when he phoned in last week, but also addressed the up and down sides of the band’s meteoric rise.

Discussion of the latter included mention of those nude photos of band mate Pete Wentz that recently surfaced on the Internet, reportedly after the bassist’s sidekick mobile phone was hacked.

Here’s part of what Stump had to say.

When they announced you were playing the Tacoma Dome, I was surprised, since the last time you played this market it was last year at El Corazon, a 500-seater. Has that aspect of the past year been really surprising to you?

We’ve been touring for three four years now – pretty much straight, too. So it hasn’t really felt like it was too sudden – you know what I mean? – even though I know that is literally quite a large jump. … It hasn’t really felt too crazy, like an overnight thing. In most places it’s been pretty gradual. But it’s pretty strange, definitely.

Do you find you’re getting mobbed by people and recognized more when you go out?

Definitely. When you’re on TV, people start noticing you. Funniest thing, we’re in New York and Pete’s walking around Toys “R” Us or something. And he got recognized by a group of Japanese tourists that were in town. And they’re just yelling at him (exuberantly), “Punk’d! Punk’d!” They recognized him just from TV. So it’s weird. Like, I’ll walk around and get that sometimes. It’s just a weird thing to think that someone somewhere is watching my band on TV. (Chuckle.) That’s just totally strange to me.

A recent Spin magazine poll says something about the crossroads of fame you have reached. “Dance Dance” was voted as one of best songs, yet you were voted worst new band.

Anybody’s gonna get that. That’s cool. It’s one of those things where it’s so easy to have a scapegoat. … It’s just part of the territory, I guess.

At the same time, do you take it personally on any level?

It would be easy to, definitely. But … if you read that you’re the best band or whatever and you buy into it, then you also have to buy into all the stuff that says you’re ruining music, you’re formulaic and you’re the most generic band that’s ever walked the face of the planet, or whatever it is. Whatever negative thing anyone has to say about you, you have to buy into it, because it’s coming from an equally credible source.

In general I don’t pay attention to any of it. Who wants to really deal with any of that stuff? It’s not too healthy to get really absorbed in either.

There’s also the news of Pete’s photos winding up on the Internet. When did you guys find out, and how did Pete take the news initially?

I was in the studio. I had been producing for a couple of months. I was doing a record for this band, the Hush Sound. I was having a very busy and tiring week. The label called me, and I was like, “Whaddaya got? What more could you possibly have? There’s nothing more you could do to ruin my week.” And they told me. And I was like, “Cool. I’m going back to work.” Who cares? Not my business. That was pretty much it.

Is that something you give him a hard time about?

We moved on pretty quick. C’est la vie. We rib everybody for everything. I get ribbed for waking up in the morning. We totally tear into each other about everything. But as far as getting made fun of any more or less, no, it’s pretty much the same level.

You guys have pretty much been crowned the new reigning kings of emo. How would you describe your music, and what’s your feeling on the term emo?

Honestly, it’s for the press to decide what they wanna call you. And if someone wants to call us emo, awesome. Go for it. You can scream it from the mountaintops. But the reality is we’re not gonna do anything to be more or less emo. And we don’t really care. And I prefer that if somebody doesn’t like us that they not like us because they hate our music and not because they hate that name that’s been put on our music.

Along those lines, I came across the term “emoverkill” in some magazine, citing you guys because of the song titles with 50 words in ’em. Where does that come from?

We’ve been doing that since the beginning. … Pete as a lyricist has always been more influenced by literature. And in literature it’s not so weird to have a name that long for anything.

Also, we come from the hard-core scene. We used to be a hard-core band. In the hard-core scene, everybody does that. So kind of collectively that’s just kind of what happened.

There’s all sorts of things we do that people criticize us for and say we’re some sort linchpin for some sort of emo (movement). I need glasses. I gotta wear ’em to see. (Chuckles.) I don’t wear ’em to look more emo.

What: Fall Out Boy in concert, with Hawthorne Heights, All-American Rejects and From First to Last

When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Tacoma Dome

Tickets: $28 to $30

Information: Ticketmaster, 253-627-8497 in Tacoma, 206-628-0888 in Seattle or www.ticketmaster.com