Photos by Jacklyn Krol | Review by Addie Whelan
When you become completely overly obsessed with an album, you spend every minute of your day reading about it, watching YouTube videos that include live debuts, reading Reddit discussions and more. Sometimes, an album completely takes over your life, pulling you into the point where you can’t even remember the last time you listened to something else.
When Fall Out Boy released their 2018 album, MANIA, fans flocked to their social networks to talk about the album that completely took over their lives. Just months later, Fall Out Boy released a massive MANIA tour, which crosses the entire country, playing some of the United States’ most historic venues.
On top of those venues, the band released a Chicago exclusive pop up, the MANIA Experience, which allows fans to truly experience the album like they never had before.
In Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, large purple flags hung from the top of the building signaling to fans that they were in the right place.
After being guided up a large staircase filled with multicolor ribbons, the door opened and we were suddenly inside “WIlson (Expensive Mistakes)” filled with palm trees, fake grass and a giant “I’ll Stop Wearing Black When They Invent A Darker Color” sign,” it was the perfect instagrammable moment to start off our journey through the band’s latest release.
Next, we turned the corner, experiencing one of our favorite moments of the night, as giant pill containers took over the room, complete with a giant “ball pit,” filled with foam “pills.” Symbolic for “Sunshine Riptide,” the room was perfect for that Instagrammable story we’ve all been waiting for in our lives.
As we journeyed through more of MANIA’s signature bathroom, a gender neutral bathroom dedicated to their latest release, “Lake Effect Kid,” and more, we soaked it in as we were truly experiencing MANIA.
Walking into the next room, we experiencing something that we never thought we would: a chance to listen to exclusive demos, remixes and other versions of the album. In one headset, a soft, soothing version of one, in another set of headphones, an EDM-like remix. Not only were the tracks incredible, but the over the ear, wireless headsets allowed us to wander through the room to experience it in full.
A walk down the hallway with a few more songs and we stumbled upon “HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T,” covered in teddy bears from top to bottom, each as soft as if they were new.
Continuing past a crane game and a few more perfect opportunities for tracks like “Heaven’s Gate,” we journeyed into the MANIA Experience exclusive merch room, perfectly set up for the massive crowd that the two-day pop up would bring. With t-shirts, stuffed llamas, pins, stickers and more, the merch pop up was the perfect place to grab a collectible piece to remember the journey.
Not only did we get to learn about FOB’s MANIA, but learned to experience it in our own eyes.
For an exclusive BTS MANIA Experience giveaway, follow BTS on Twitter here
Check out photos from Fall Out Boy’s MANIA Experience below.
Photos by Jacklyn Krol
- GTK: PJ Harding - June 16, 2023
- Big Time Rush is Just Getting Started - February 13, 2023
- 2023 GRAMMYs: The Nominees - November 15, 2022
