Fall Out Boy + Bring Me The Horizon at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre

Fall Out Boy rose to the forefront of emo pop in the mid-2000s, blending power pop-style hooks with soulful vocals and dance-friendly grooves. Rising from the punk underground, the band made their mainstream breakthrough in 2005 with their sophomore set, From Under the Cork Tree, spawning the hits “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Dance, Dance.” Two years later, they topped the Billboard 200 with Infinity on High. Shifting from the Warped Tour crowd to sold-out arenas by the 2010s, they issued a string of chart-topping albums that decade — Save Rock and Roll, American Beauty/American Psycho, M A N I A — all of which found them embracing a wider range of styles, including R&B and electro-pop. Along the way, they continued to score mainstream hits that served the mosh pits as well as sports stadiums. In 2023, they delivered their anthemic eighth album So Much (for) Stardust.

The group’s four members first came together in Wilmette, a bedroom community north of Chicago, around 2001. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joe Trohman had all taken part in various bands connected to Chicago’s underground hardcore scene. Most notably, Hurley drummed for Racetraitor, the furiously political metalcore outfit. As Fall Out Boy, the quartet used the unbridled intensity of hardcore as a foundation for melody-drenched pop-punk, with a heavy debt to the emo scene. They debuted with a self-released demo in 2001, following it up in May 2002 with a split LP (issued on the Uprising label) that also featured Project Rocket, for which Hurley also drummed. The band remained with the label for the release of a mini-LP, Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out with Your Girl, but a bidding war of sorts was already in full swing.

Fall Out Boy eventually signed a deal with Fueled by Ramen, the Florida-based label co-owned by Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Fiorello, but also received an advance from Island Records to record a proper debut album. The advance came with a right of first refusal for Island on Fall Out Boy’s next album, but it also financed the recording of Take This to Your Grave, which occurred at Butch Vig‘s Smart Studios compound in Madison, Wisconsin, with producer Sean O’Keefe (Lucky Boys Confusion, Motion City Soundtrack) at the helm. Take This to Your Grave appeared in May 2003 and Fall Out Boy earned positive reviews for subsequent gigs at South by Southwest and various tour appearances. Their breakout album, the ambitious From Under the Cork Tree, followed in spring 2005, quickly reaching the Top Ten of Billboard’s album chart and spawning two Top Ten hits with “Sugar We’re Going Down” and the furiously upbeat “Dance, Dance.” The album went double platinum and earned the musicians a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.

Fall Out Boy’s underground star status — driven by the especially extroverted Wentz, who also gained exposure with his clothing line, his Decaydance record label (an imprint of Fueled by Ramen), and eventually a celebrity relationship with Ashlee Simpson — had boiled over into the mainstream. They toured extensively, supporting the album with international tours, arena shows, TRL visits, late-night television gigs, and music award shows. Without taking a break, the guys then hunkered down to work on their follow-up record with From Under the Cork Tree producer Neil Avron (and, somewhat surprisingly, Babyface). Infinity on High, whose title was taken from a line in one of Van Gogh‘s personal letters, appeared in early February 2007, spearheaded by the hit single “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race.” The album continued Fall Out Boy’s streak, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts and going platinum one month later. Released in early 2008, the CD/DVD package Live in Phoenix documented the band’s strength as a flashy live act, while the full-length studio effort Folie à Deux followed later that year.

Recording sessions for Folie à Deux were tough, prompting the band to take an open-ended hiatus soon after the album’s release. Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley joined a new band, Damned Things, during the interim, while Wentz teamed up with a new vocalist, Bebe Rexha, to form Black Cards. Stump took the opportunity to launch a solo career, ditching his band’s emo pop music in favor of a more electronic, R&B-influenced sound. In 2011, he released his debut solo album, Soul Punk, cracking the top 50 of the Billboard 200. Despite the solo projects, it wasn’t long before rumors of a Fall Out Boy reunion began to swirl. In February 2013, the band confirmed that the rumors were true: they had reunited for a new album called Save Rock and Roll and an accompanying tour. Preceded by the single “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up),” Save Rock and Roll was released in April of 2013 and promptly debuted at number one on the U.S. charts. The band stayed busy during the subsequent year as well, creating a video for each song on the album, recording the punk-inspired EP Pax-Am Days (with production from Ryan Adams), and headlining tours that reached America, Europe, and Australia.

In late 2014, Fall Out Boy premiered a new single, “Centuries,” the first glimpse of their sixth album, American Beauty/American Psycho. Produced in part by J.R. Rotem and SebastiAn, it combined Fall Out Boy’s core punk-pop sound with elements of electronica, R&B, and hip-hop. The album debuted at number one when it was released the following January and it stayed on the charts thanks to the Munsters-sampling single “Uma Thurman,” which was certified platinum. The band released a remix version of the album called Make America Psycho Again in October 2015.

Out Boy revealed that their forthcoming seventh album, M A N I A, would be released later that year. The announcement was accompanied by the album’s first single, “Young and Menace.” Although they released a second single, “Champion,” they felt the album needed more work and headed back into the studio to in the latter half of 2017. This version of M A N I A appeared in January 2018 and debuted at number one on the Billboard charts upon its release. In September 2019, Fall Out Boy collaborated with Wyclef Jean on the single “Dear Future Self (Hands Up),” which appeared on their second anthology, Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.

In January 2023, the group returned with the singles “Love from the Other Side” and “Heartbreak Feels So Good,” the first tracks released off their eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust. That same month, guitarist Trohman revealed he was taking a break from the band to focus on his mental health. Released that March, So Much (for) Stardust featured production by Neal Avron, who had previously helmed Folie à Deux. The album also marked the band’s return to Fueled by Ramen following the end of their contract with Island Records.

English rock band Bring Me the Horizon have made a steady progression from their death metal-inspired grindcore debut to melodic metalcore, maturing into a pop-savvy headline act by the end of their first decade together. With each release — from 2006’s caustic Count Your Blessings to 2013’s mainstream breakthrough Sempiternal — they dialed back the blood-curdling screams and injected more melody until capturing an alt-metal balance on their 2015 international chart-topping effort That’s the Spirit. By 2019’s Amo, they had incorporated elements of electronic and even hip-hop into their edgy, genre-blurring blend. In 2020 Bring Me the Horizon issued Post Human: Survival Horror, the first installment of an ambitious four-part arc of EPs that they followed up in 2021 with DiE4u. They spent much of 2022 collaborating with artists like Ed Sheeran and Machine Gun Kelly, and the single “Lost” appeared in 2023.

The group was formed in 2004 from the ashes of several Sheffield-based outfits, with the 2003 Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean serving as the inspiration for the band’s name. Singer Oliver Sykes, guitarists Lee Malia and Curtis Ward, bassist Matt Kean, and drummer Matt Nicholls initially established their own label, Thirty Days of Night, to release their debut EP, 2005’s This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For. Upon signing to the higher-profile label Visible Noise (whose roster also included Bullet for My Valentine and Lostprophets), they reissued the EP to a wider audience. Bring Me the Horizon’s full-length debut, Count Your Blessings, appeared in October 2006, with an American release following one year later courtesy of Epitaph Records.

With their second album, Suicide Season, Bring Me the Horizon moved in a more accessible direction and wound up cracking the U.K. album charts. Not everyone approved of the new sound, though, and Ward left the band in early 2009. His temporary replacement was Jona Weinhofen, formerly a member of I Killed the Prom Queen. Weinhofen ended up staying with the band as a permanent member, and the group returned to the studio with producer Fredrik Nordström in March 2010 to begin work on a third album. The resulting There Is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It, There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep It a Secret was released during the latter half of 2010, several months after the band wrapped up their engagement with the Warped Tour.

A fourth album, the critically lauded Sempiternal, arrived on Epitaph in 2013, and peaked at number three on the U.K. albums chart. Bring Me the Horizon’s next effort marked a stark departure from the sound they’d been honing since their debut. Released in 2015, the loosely conceptual That’s the Spirit saw the group dropping some of their metalcore tendencies in lieu of a more melodic, alt-metal approach, capturing mainstream ears with the singles “Happy Song,” “True Friends,” and “Avalanche.” Their highest-performing effort to date, the set topped charts across the globe, peaking in the Top Three in their native England and in the U.S. Riding the success of Spirit, the band staged an ambitious charity concert benefitting the Teenage Cancer Trust. Backed by the Parallax Orchestra and Simon Dobson, the group set their hits to orchestral backing on 2016’s Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

In the summer of 2018, Bring Me the Horizon continued down an increasingly experimental path with the mainstream-ready anthem “Mantra” and the surprisingly poppy “Medicine.” Both tracks landed on their sixth full-length effort, Amo, which was released in early 2019. Their first U.K. chart-topper, Amo incorporated electronic dance elements and trap production, featuring guest appearances by Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth), art-pop singer Grimes, and rapper Rahzel. As the band toured the globe, they joined a stacked roster of artists for the soundtrack to the video game Death Stranding, contributing the track “Ludens.” At the close of 2019, in addition to Amo receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album, the group issued a surprise project titled Music to Listen To…. The experimental foray dabbled in electronic atmospherics, ambient noise, and trip-hop, reimagining tracks from Amo in the process. Guests on the release include Halsey and Theresa Jarvis of Yonaka.

In early 2020, the band quarantined in their home studios during the COVID-19 pandemic to record their next effort, which was heavily influenced by global events. During the summer, they issued “Parasite Eve” and the industrial-tinged “Obey,” a collaboration with English upstart Yungblud. These tracks landed on Post Human: Survival Horror, the first installment of a proposed multi-part EP series. In addition to the previously released singles, the set also included appearances by Babymetal (“Kingslayer”), Nova Twins (“1×1”), and Amy Lee of Evanescence (“One Day…”). Part two, the more melodic and anthemic DiE4u, arrived the following year. A string of high-profile collaborations marked the band’s 2022 output and included featured appearances with Ed Sheeran (“Bad Habits”), Machine Gun Kelly (“Maybe”), and Sigrid (“Bad Life”). They returned with their own single, “Strangers,” in July of that year. Another single, “Lost,” arrived in May 2023.