On Nov. 10, H Mart shoppers at Koreatown Plaza discovered they weren’t in for a typical grocery run.
Just across the way from the Asian supermarket, a pop-up stage sat in front of the mall elevator advertising the Twilight of the Punks North America Stadium Tour next summer — a Warped Tour vet’s dream lineup of Fall Out Boy, The Offspring, Good Charlotte and The Story So Far.
The tour announcement came earlier in the week, with a Los Angeles concert set for Dodger Stadium on Aug. 21, while a landmark FOB hometown show will welcome the Chicago band to Soldier Field Stadium on July 24. A U.K. leg, just ahead of the stateside run, will see Neck Deep and A Day to Remember join the longtime rockers.
Inside Koreatown Plaza on the Tuesday evening, various storefronts transformed to adhere to the band’s Twilight Town Mall motif, which had first popped up across FOB’s social media platforms and website last week. One shop, named Twilight Dream Center, displayed a casket with a green blow-up alien. Another boasted an archive of toys and trinkets alongside Fall Out Boy posters. In the food court, a retro Cosmic Scoops ice cream stand (not actually serving ice cream) accompanied a complimentary claw machine with extraterrestrial plushies. Meanwhile, outside, a line of elder emos and Gen-Z pop punk fans wrapped the building. News had quickly spread that Fall Out Boy was to have a surprise set after fans started receiving Partiful invites during the late afternoon for the grand reopening of Twilight Town Mall.
Fall Out Boy fans — including a few headphone-donning toddlers in attendance — packed the three levels of Koreatown Plaza by 7 p.m. Not long after a yo-yo warm-up act (to the delight of many), Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley entered to screams.
“Can you imagine if you were just trying to go to H Mart and you just saw Warped Tour in the middle of the mall,” Wentz said after an intro that marked the live debut of their latest single “ACES.”
Between Wentz gifting one of his bass picks to a 6-year-old and the cross-discography nature of the setlist, the mall concert felt like more than a promotional event for the band — it was an intimate, high-energy moment for a Midwest-born band and its West Coast disciples. The way the audience overpowered even Stump’s famously strong vocals would have you convinced that “I’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song” is one of music’s greatest disses.
“[This] wouldn’t be fun if you guys didn’t make it fun,” Wentz said.
See the full setlist below. General ticket sales for the Twilight of the Punks North America Stadium Tour begin on Nov. 12.
ACES
Sugar, We’re Goin Down
Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes
Grand Theft Autumn
Centuries
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
The Kids Aren’t Alright
Saturday
The post Fall Out Boy Played a Surprise Concert Last Night Next to the Koreatown Plaza H Mart appeared first on LAmag.
