Despite really liking Fall Out Boy in the early 2000’s, particularly their debut album Take This Your Grave, by 2006 I had decided I was too good for the band, who had since exploded in popularity.
I was an idiot for this, they weren’t the only band I wrote off just because everyone else liked them, but in my defence I’m definitely not the only one whose ever done this and I have since grown out of this jealous/insecure trait. In fact, by 2007 when FOB released Infinity On High, I’d come back around.
So why did I go to this gig in early 2006?
The ticket in this post isn’t actually mine, or at least it wasn’t the one I originally purchased. Some time before I’d decided to sell the ticket I’d booked for this show as I was no longer interested in seeing the band.
Then the opening band was announced. Gym Class Heroes. Now here was a band that I felt some sense of ownership of (what a loser). They were still relatively unknown in the UK and as Travis McCoy said himself on stage that night, their hip hop crossover sound was a “tough pill to swallow” for some.
They were signed to Fueled By Ramen, still partly owned by Vinnie Fiorello from Less Than Jake. He’d been championing the band for a year or so, and, well, I’d have probably listened to silence at this point in time if he’d recommended it.
GCH’s set, though short, was great, and well worth the journey. Later that evening I decided I should probably replace my CD-R copy of their debut album The Papercut Chronicles, with the real deal. I was served at the merch table by Travis himself. A year later they were close to being a household name thanks to radio hits from their follow up As Cruel As School Children.
COLLECT US ALL! 