Nintendo
Fusion Tour fails to meet L.A. expectations
By
Angela O’Brien
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
This time last year, My Chemical Romance and Story of the Year rocked stages
and video games alike with the Nintendo Fusion Tour. This year it is Fall Out
Boy’s turn to take a spin around the nation with the Starting Line, Motion
City Soundtrack, Boys Night Out and Panic! at the Disco. The second annual
Nintendo Fusion Tour packed a sold out crowd into Los Angeles’ legendary
Wiltern Theatre Thursday.
Opening the show was Las Vegas natives Panic! at the Disco, a perfect band
to get the crowd ready for the acts to come. This quartet dropped their new
album only a month ago, but the audience was still able to sing along to every
word and dancing to their electric rock beats.
The fairly young band—fresh out of high school—had so much stage
presence it was as if they have been performing in front of large crowds for
decades.
Brendon Urie’s catchy vocal hooks could be compared to Fall Out Boy’s
Patrick Stumph and the band’s dance rock is reflective of fellow Vegas
band the Killers. However, Panic! brought a certain flare that is uniquely
their own.
The same can not be said for the next band, Boys Night Out hailing Canada.
Ironic to the name, the band consists of five boys and a girl.
Their name was not the only confusing thing about the band. Their performance
was a miserable mesh of random noises as if they were jamming in their garage
and experimenting with whatever they could come up with.
The Canadian sextet energetically bounced around attempting to involve the
crowd in the performance, but the crowd did not budge. “Train Wreck,” the
name of their debut album, turns out to be the only phrase that can describe
the band’s 25-minute performance impeccably.
Saving the audience from Boys Night Out, Minneapolis breakout band Motion City
Soundtrack captivated the crowd from beginning to end of their performance.
The band got the crowd moving again from the prior musical mess.
All eyes focused on keyboardist Jesse Johnson, who used his keyboard as a podium
to dance and flail around to the pop-rock music. Mark Hoppus of Blink 182—who
teamed up with Motion City for their latest and disappointing album
“ Commit This to Memory”—made a special appearance performing
alongside the band.
“
We only have to work 30 minutes a day, so we try to make it as good as we
can,” drummer Tony Thaxton said.
Motion City’s captivating show redeemed them from their sub par album.
Next on the bill was the Starting Line, a band who has been out of the indie
spotlight for about two years. The audience waited in anticipation to see if
the quartet could still carry an active show now that they are on a major label,
Geffen Records.
Unfortunately, they could not capture the crowd in a whirl of pop-punk splendor
as they did three years ago on tour with Finch and Brand New. Their set consisted
of mainly new material off of their second full-length album,’“Based
on a True Story,” which was boring and lacked imagination.
The crowd perked up to the last song of the set,”“Leaving,” from
their debut album,”“Say It Like You Mean It,” restoring a
sparkle of hope. During the song’s bridge, they comically sampled the
chorus of Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Going Down” in
a tribute to the headliners.
The Starting Line gave a trying attempt to put their heart into the show Thursday;
maybe they will have better luck next year when they tour Europe with MxPx.
By this time in the evening, all complaints of mediocre bands were set aside
because Fall Out Boy was up next to make adolescent TRL fantasies come true.
The curtain lifted to a theater props set to music similar to that in the movie “The
Life Aquatic.” The band came out amidst bright lights and confetti raining
down upon the gleaming crowd.
The Chicago quartet focused greatly on putting together a massive production
for their audience, they did not realize how impersonal their performance became.
This, especially, includes the mind-numbing 10-minute intermission in the middle
of their set—replacing the usual ending encore.
Up until this point, their set list consisted entirely of new material from—“From
Under the Cork Tree.” They promised the second half of the show would
reprise of old material. However, when they made their way back on stage after
the intermission—after a disgusting parlor trick from their merchandise
person, Dirty—they performed very few songs from their previous albums.
The only highlight from their performance was when Justin Pierre, lead vocalist
from Motion City Soundtrack, came out during “Chicago is so Two Years
Ago” with video camera in hand to sing with Patrick Stumph.
With the exception of a couple of bands—Panic! At The Disco and Motion
City Soundtrack— adorning the Wiltern
Theatre stage, the event Thursday did not live up to Los Angeles soaring expectations.
|
