Patrick Stump remembers Fall Out Boy’s first gig in 2001: “We were really terrible!”

Next year, Fall Out Boy will tick off ‘headlining Download Festival’ for the first time ever – a feat that follows in an incredibly long line of career accomplishments. And it’ll be a far cry from the Chicago heroes’ first-ever gig in 2001, which frontman Patrick Stump remembers was, um, “really terrible”.

In the brand-new winter issue of Kerrang!, we catch up with Patrick while out on FOB’s incredible So Much For (Tour) Dust arena run to look back at all the different shows they’ve played over the years – from their first time hitting the UK, to their final show before they went on hiatus, to the Monumentour with Paramore in 2014.

And while these days they are total pros, thinking back to the first Fall Out Boy gig at the DePaul University Cafeteria in Chicago some 22 years ago, the vocalist remembers, “We were playing with some pretty cool math-rock and emo bands. When we got out there, we were horrible – I mean really terrible – and there were about three or four people there. I can’t remember what our band name was at the time – it wasn’t Fall Out Boy, and we were tossing some names around. I remember suggesting one of the names we had in mind to the drummer in one of the other bands and him telling me it sucked.

“We had a guitar player who I’d only met the week before and I’ve never seen since. I hope he’s doing good things. I heard he became a bike messenger. I cannot imagine a humbler beginning for a first show!”

Of course, hardcore fans will know that now-drummer Andy Hurley wasn’t in the band in those super-early days, and Patrick also recalls his bandmate’s first show with Fall Out Boy, which was a couple of years later in 2003.

“I think it was with Andy’s other band, The Kill Pill,” Patrick says. “Andy played in both bands that night. It was a bigger show for us, opening for [Florida melodic hardcore band] As Friends Rust, and we didn’t have a guitar player, so I was playing guitar. It was weird because we were playing some newer songs, which stood out, so it felt like we’d started to actualise the band. I’m a drummer originally, so I was picky about drummers. But when we played with Andy, it was the first time that it felt right. I remember saying to a friend of mine who was there at the time that we were still a bad band then, and she said, ‘You guys couldn’t see it, but even then, it felt like the beginning of something.’”

Order your copy of the new issue of Kerrang! here to read the full interview.

Fall Out Boy will headline the Saturday night of Download Festival next year, taking place at Donington Park from June 14 – 16. Get your tickets now.

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