Folie a deux: Patrick Stump (vocals, guitar) and Andy Hurley (drums) from Fall Out Boy perform in Singapore on Feb. 10. Courtesy of Universal Music

Fall Out Boy’s appearances in Singapore have all been rather timely.

Their last visit, in March 2007, took place soon after the band’s platinum album Infinity on High was released. Playing to a packed hall, their hyper performance left the mostly teenage audience wanting more. Two years later, the rock group from Illinois is back – barely two months since the release of their new album, Folie A Deux.

Folie A Deux, which translates from the French as “madness shared by two”, refers to a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom is transmitted from one individual to another. But on February 10 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the madness was passed among 4,000 audience members (mostly teens), who flocked to see the quartet, consisting of 24-year-old Patrick Stump on vocals and guitar, 29-year-old bassist Peter Wentz, 28-year-old drummer Andy Hurley and 24-year-old guitarist Joe Trohman.

An opening act by fellow American band, Hey Monday, warmed up the stage for the main performance. Although the voice of frontwoman Cassadee Pope was unstable and most of the time drowned by the drums and guitars, they seemed to keep the crowd happy.

At 9 p.m., all hell broke loose: The audience screamed their lungs out as Fall Out Boy kicked off the show with a 2007 hit from Infinity on High, “Thnks fr the Mmrs”. The second song, “Thriller”, was taken from the same album.

Next they gave the crowd an older tune, “A Little Less 16 Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’” from the band’s 2005 record From Under the Cork Tree.

Three back-to-back hits – “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”, “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”, and new single “I Don’t Care” – sent the temperature and the decibels rising.

While it was mayhem in the standing area, chaperoning moms and dads sat quietly on the bleachers, occasionally nodding their heads and tapping their feet.

The band, known to perform famous renditions during their concerts, included in the night’s

song line-up Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” and a surprising-but-nice take on Estelle’s R&B number, “American Boy”.

The boys are clearly not into lavish stage decor. The barren black stage was pretty much filled with the drum set, microphones and lighting stands. An enormous black backdrop with the band’s name in white was the only stand-out decoration from the audience’s view.

They did use some impressive lighting during “I Don’t Care” – the whole stage went pitch black with only blinking LED lights on the band’s guitars and bass on, having the effect of making the guitars look like heroes.

Although some of the audience members who were standing complained of a poor sound system, from the bleachers the band sounded neat. Patrick Stump’s strong vocals and his mean solo guitar segment on “The Take Over, the Breaks Over” came through strongly.

Although he did most of the singing, it was bassist Peter Wentz who did most of the talking.

New dad Wentz, who made a great contribution to the popularity of “guyliner” (as in eyeliner for guys), greeted the audience in between songs, asked them to shout “Welcome to Singapore” to their camera crew on stage, dished out some life advice (“school is cool, guys”) and at one point read out a note handed by an audience member to promote his band.

He also performed his signature 360-degree jumping twirls across the stage several times. At the end of the show, he moshed into the audience and came out with his jeans halfway down his boxers.

Drummer Andy Hurley, comfortably engrossed in his playing, was drumming away barefooted and bare-chested, showing the top half of his body covered in tattoos. Guitarist Joe Trohman was rocking in his own world with his crazy curls covering his face as he jumped around the stage.

Sixteen songs and 70 minutes later the boys ended the show with “Saturday” from their 2003 album Take This to Your Grave.

While their music is widely labeled pop punk, they’re often described as an “emo” band, and an influential one, too.

This much is true – just ask the groups of teenagers who showed up at their gig dressed all in black outfits with incredibly skinny jeans and their hair covering half their faces.

Popular

Essay competition: ‘Rethinking work: Driving sustainable growth in the digital age’

Reform era draws to a close

A Fold in Time: Southeast Asia's women artists explore identity, history