#mania experience

[riceisgood123]

Woke Up on the Wrong Side of Reality. Featuring a project I’ve been wanting to make since 2018! Don’t ask me why it took me 2 years to finally do it :,)

[thelastrealyoungchampion]

The Time I ended up at the Mania Experience. Funny story was that we showed up too early and I saw Spencer outside but was too shy to say anything

[pstumpclub]

from @mania_fob on snapchat

[g0ldxplated]

My MANIA (era) experience

Now that all my FOB related shows are over and none are coming up in the near future, I thought why not look back on what has probably been one of the best years I was lucky enough to experience, all thanks to my favorite band and the people I got to meet through them.

It all began with the three small shows they announced in Europe. I had already booked a vacation to Japan, just two weeks prior to them releasing the dates. I already knew that I had to make it to at least one of them and while Berlin was out of the question since I wasn’t going to go to Tokyo just for a couple of days, I decided I would cut my vacation short and book another 16 hour flight from Tokyo to London, so I would be able to see them at least in Brixton. Prior to that, me and three of my friends had come up with the idea to design a flag, specifically for this show. 

Basically, what we did was to put the wave that had come around by the beginning of the MANIA era inside of the crown FOB logo.  Needless to say the show  (01/11/2018) was an absolute blast and by the end of it, we had our flag handed to Ranel in hopes he would give it to the boys. It was such a good time, seeing them after what had been more than a year and in a setting that was way more intimate than the venues they usually play in. After the show we thought that this would be the last we would ever see of our little project, but months later we would come to realize it would turn into one of the greatest memories ever.

Anyway, the day atfer the Brixton show (01/12/2018), the boys were playing a short acoustic set in Kingston, in a venue even smaller than Electric Brixton. They only played 5 songs (HMTOD, Sugar, Uma, Mmrs and Centuries) but I enjoyed every second and they seemed to be in such a great mood. Not to mention that it’s not every day we get to hear the acoustic version of those songs.

After these two special gigs, I already knew the MANIA era was off to a fantastic start for me and the adventures along the way would become some of my favorite memories. Shortly after, MANIA was released and the boys announced their Wrigley Field show, so me and a group of friends immediately decided to visit the US for the first time, as we couldn’t miss out on such a special show (it had been my dream to see them play in Chicago, their hometown for a long time). Additionally, we planned to attend 6 shows of their EU/UK tour and I spent months being excited for all that was to come. They went on to play in New Zeeland and Australia and what came next truly blew my mind. I saw footage from the first show that would kick off their tour over there and came across a very blury video of Stay Frosty. During that time they didn’t have the backdrop for it ready so the background image they used was a logo. But not just any logo, it seemed awfully familiar and I immediately thought of the flag we had made months prior. I couldn’t tell 100% if it was what we had designed, but I decided to take a chance and tweeted Pete about it to ask him whether it was inspired by the flag we had given to them in Brixton. What happened next was probably one of the best things that ever happpened to me.

Hours later, the FOB twitter account responded me, followed me and sent me a DM. Me and my friends were ecstatic and they promised to send a package to me that would include stuff for all of us. Little did I know how generous they would be. They even included a picture of the logo and one with Pete in it in their reply to me.  And I wouldn’t be disappointed. A short while before I was going to leave for my upcoming FOB shows, a gigantic package was delivered, including a signed copy of MANIA, the vinyl and Llamania for all of us and additionally stickers, bath bombs, a guitar strap, a Folie poster and the bobble heads. I couldn’t thank them enough for making this an absolutely incredibly memory for me to share with my friends, especially because they would use the logo as a backdrop during Church, meaning so many people got to see what we inspired and I had a chance of witnessing it with my own eyes during the EU/UK tour. The feeling of seeing it in person was incredible. Next, the EU/UK tour came up and I saw them in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf. It was the best time I got to spend with friends, traveling to all these awesome cities and seeing our favorite band together.

It was bitter sweet when tour ended, but I knew I was going to see them again in Chicago and meanwhile decided to also see them at Leeds fest. I can’t thank my friends enough that always spent ridiculous amounts of time queueing with me, freezing with me, sitting through rain and cold wind, sharing stories and laughs together, only so we could rock out on barricade after. The whole experience was one I will always treasure. So up next was Leeds fest:

As always, the boys didn’t disappoint and Pete’s flame thrower bass made one of its first appearances. It was tough to last until FOB’s set, mostly due to how incredibly terrible some fans of certain artists behaved (I even cracked my rib from being crushed against the barricade as I found out once back home), but all the exhaustion was blown away the second they came on stage, opening with Disloyal Order, which had all of us emotional to say the least. Leeds happened around two weeks before our biggest FOB related adventure to date would begin and meanwhile I had started a small project months prior. I created a book filled with letters from fans all over the world, specifically about their very own MANIA experiences. I knew a lot of people wanted to be present for this big milestone the band was looking forward to, but couldn’t be, hence why I wanted to take a part of everyone with me to give to the boys. I had managed to snatch a Sunshine Riptide package for their Wrigley show, meaning I knew I was going to meet Pete and Andy at a m&g, so I thought I could hand the book to them in person.

This is us a couple of hours before getting on our flight to Chicago ♥

The Chicago trip turned into a little bit of a FOB tourist tour, meaning we went to the infamous Pick Me Up cafe and sat on the table they shot the cover of EOWYG on. The food was terribly delicious as well, so I can 100% recommend going there if you take a trip to Chicago.

All the days spent with so many amazing people in Chicago made the whole trip truly unforgettable. I’m so grateful for all of the friendships I’ve been able to make this past year.

I also got a tattoo done while there (not my first FOB tattoo but definitely one of the most meaningful):

What it means? Basically it’s inspired by Chicago Is So Two Years Ago, especially by the line “There’s a light on in Chicago and I know I should be home”. It just personally made a lot of sense to me to get a tattoo related to this song in this particular city. Inside the light bulb is part of the Chicago skyline and the coordinates are for Wrigley Field. Soon the big day came and I couldn’t contain my excitement, neither could my friends. I was stoked for the show, I was stoked to give them the book I had spent months on making. But mostly I was thrilled to finally, after 11 years of waiting, meet Pete and Andy. Especially Pete has been someone I’ve been looking up to for a long time, therefore I couldn’t believe it was going to happen on such a special day.

The m&g itself was rather short (sadly), though the boys were lovely and Andy said my KISS shirt was cool. 

I can’t even express how much I enjoyed the show itself. It was emotional from beginning to end and I did shed some tears. I felt blessed hearing Chicago Is So Two Years Ago and Lake Effect Kid in this particular place. Despite having been to quite a few FOB shows, this one will always remain one of my favorites, without a doubt.

Amazingly enough, Wrigley Field wasn’t the end of our FOB adventures. Remember the book I was talking about? During the m&g I wasn’t allowed to bring it with me and therefore couldn’t hand it to the boys in person. Luckily a lovely staff lady took a hold of it for me. Once again, I thought I had seen the last of it. But I was curious whether they had eventually gotten it or not (also felt a certain responsibility towards everyone that had contributed), so I tweeted Pete. After the show when we got on our Lyft back home, my friend suddenly told me he had replied! Though he commented on my tweet and said the book was rad, rather than answering my question as to whether or not he had gotten it. Still, I was happy.  A couple of days later I woke up to Pete having posted my book on his IG story! I couldn’t be more thankful, he’s truly a real one and made my heart super happy. So many people trusted me with their words and I decorated the book with my personal art, so it meant the world to me he cared enough to truly let me know he had gotten a hold of it.

The next day my friends and I had tickets for the MANIA experience. Yet another thing I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to say I saw in person. It felt like talking a walk through Pete’s head. We spent hours just hanging out, listening to the demos and songs they had available for people to listen to over headphones.

After the experience we decided to visit their old apartment, where everything pretty much began (the one where they also took the photo for their TTTYG album cover). This would be the last stop of our little FOB Chicago tour and probably the right place to visit last. I feel I kind of came full circle and couldn’t be grateful enough for everyone who made this trip truly special.

I pretty much thought that Chicago/Wrigley Field would be the last FOB related event I’d attend for this era/year, but then we figured out Andy was going on EU tour with his band SECT and immediately bought tickets. What can I say, no better way to let this era come to an end than meeting Andy at this show a week ago. We were the only FOB fans there so we got to talk to him for quite a while, which was refreshing since it’s pretty much impossible to spend more than 10 minutes talking to one of them unless you bump into them on the street. He was lovely, took a lot of time to talk to us, took pictures with us, signed my Wrigley ticket and even kept saying hi every time he walked past us. Once the gig was over he immediately came looking for us to hand all four of us one of his drumsticks. Andy is truly the sweetest and I’m so happy I was able to meet him in this very intimate setting (I don’t think there were more than 60 people). This year was certainly unreal and I can’t wait for next era.

Maybe it was all just a dream ♥

[patricksowala]

i never told yall this but awhile ago there was a pair of shoes that pete wentz signed during the mania experience up for sale on ebay and one of the photos listed was of him laying in the box and you can see me just like. staring into the void 

[pmvstump]

falloutboy: doing it real big in chicago real soon. More info coming later this week 😉 go get your tickets to wrigley and the rest of the tour if you don’t have them yet 💜 https://falloutboy.com/tour / [x]

[loosestitchh]

can you imagine pete approaching the other guys about the box. can you imagine how that conversation went down.

[purplestumpomatic]

THEY GLUED YARN TO THE RESTROOM MIRRORS…DUMB