Pete Wentz (left) of Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams of Paramore are set to perform with their bands July 12 at Cincinnati’s Bunbury Music Festival.
Credit: Photos courtesy of MCT
Fall Out Boy and Paramore are set to share the stage this summer — but no kind of “Misery Business” is to be had between the two biggest names in alt rock.
“Any competition is friendly competition,” Hayley Williams, the lead singer for Paramore, said in a media press conference call.
The bands are slated to park their co-headline Monumentour at Cincinnati’s annual Bunbury Music Festival Saturday, playing back-to-back slots on the main stage.
Pete Wentz, bass player for Fall Out Boy, said in a separate media press conference call that the tour will be different for the band, as it’s their first co-headline tour in a long time.
“(Both bands are) limited by that, and the bar is raised by that,” Wentz said. “Limited in the way that we share the stage equally, time-wise and what we put on the stage, and that kind of stuff.”
Wentz called Paramore an act that could close the show on their own, and he knows Fall Out Boy will be playing in front of many Paramore fans.
However, Williams said she isn’t worried about a rivalry: It’s more about both bands doing their best.
“I know they (Fall Out Boy) are going to put on an amazing show, and, to me, that’s important,” Williams said. “If both bands aren’t bringing their A-game, then we’re doing our fans an injustice.”
The reason Paramore and Fall Out Boy had never toured together until now, Wentz said, was because of timing. To him and Williams, it’s a big deal that they finally are able to make it work, as their fans have been asking for this for a while.
“For me, the tour is a long time coming,” Williams said, adding that both bands grew from the “same scene,” and they share a lot of the same fans.
Fall Out Boy hasn’t officially started working on any new music. However, the band is looking into doing projects that are different.
“We’re far more open now to doing something that’s, like, probably outside of what people would consider our genre or who we are,” Wentz said.
The band’s genre has evolved over the years, and Fall Out Boy is working on doing the same.
“It’s more about creating something that will exist in Fall Out Boy’s legacy and less so thinking of things that are going to be so immediate,” Wentz said.
As for Paramore, Williams said the band has redefined who they are by broadening their horizons, a product of discovering that they don’t have to meet anyone’s expectations.
“We always have to be good, and we always need to be better than we were the last time around, but Paramore is (bassist) Jeremy (Davis), (guitarist) Taylor (York) and Hayley, so it’s whoever we are in that given moment,” Williams said. “If next year we put out an album or make an album that is all pop songs or is all heavy songs or funk like ‘Ain’t It Fun,’ I just don’t think there are any rules anymore.”
As for the band’s upcoming tour, Williams said she hopes Paramore can make an impact on their fans.
She said if Paramore isn’t getting up on stage, looking their fans in the eyes and making them feel known, then the members are missing the point of why they are in the band.
“If you’re coming out to a show, we don’t know what you’re leaving behind at home or what you’re going home to after that night, and it could be the best thing, or it could be the worst thing,” Williams said. “So our job is just to make sure our fans know, and people coming out to our show know, that they are seen and they are heard and they are important to us.”
Bill Donabedian, the founder of the Bunbury Music Festival, which is currently in its third year, said the fest is “very excited to have both on as co-headliners for the Saturday of this year’s festival.”
Bunbury Music Festival kicks off Friday and goes to Sunday at Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove in Cincinnati. Paramore is set to perform on the main stage at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, and Fall Out Boy is set to take the main stage at 10 p.m. Ticket prices vary from $69 to $580 and can be purchased on Bunbury’s website.
