By Two of the hottest acts in pop music in the last decade played secret shows in Anaheim last week under not-so-secret pseudonyms.
Pop icon-turned-tabloid staple Britney Spears performed one of her first shows in almost three years to a sold-out crowd at the House of Blues in Anaheim last Wednesday under the name “The M+M’s.”
Not even 24 hours later, pop-punk poster boys Fall Out Boy took the stage of the Chain Reaction venue under the name “Switchblade and Infidelity” for a little more than 200 of their most passionate fans.
It was a scene right off the tabloid pages as photographers, reporters and TV crews bombarded the House of Blues venue in Downtown Disney hoping to catch a glimpse of Spears roaming the almost 1,000-person capacity club.
The night before, Spears played her first show since 2004 at the House of Blues in San Diego. Performing a 16-minute set, the pop star was obviously lip-synching and didn’t say anything to the audience except a “Thanks for coming” at the end of the set.
The crowd in Anaheim was forced to check in their cameras and cell phones before entering, but they still packed the venue hoping to see something different from what they saw on the news from the night before.
They didn’t.
Spears took the stage to some of the loudest screams and cheers I have ever heard in the House of Blues venue before performing the same 16-minute set. But the crowd still hung on Spears’ every move and hollered catcalls at every opportune moment.
Armed with a team of four blonde backup dancers, the all-female quintet did Pussycat Doll-esque dances to a medley of five of Spears’ hits: a remix of “I’m A Slave For You” mixed with “Baby One More Time,” followed by “Breathe On Me,” “Do Something” and “Toxic.”
Wearing only a brunette wig, pink bra, white ultra-miniskirt (yes – with underwear on) and white Go-Go boots, Spears seemed to be showing off her new, tightened physique. She definitely did not look like a recent mother of two as she rolled around on the ground looking just as sexy as ever.
My only complaint about the set was that it was too short (obviously). But even though some people paid upwards of $200 per ticket to hear Britney lip-sync her way through five songs, the atmosphere after the show was extremely positive.
When reporters and TV crews attacked concertgoers as they were let out of the venue, people screamed and cheered and enthusiastically told their interviewers how awesome the show was and how Britney Spears is making her comeback.
Will she or won’t she? Only time will tell, but hardcore Spears fans and those who went just out of morbid curiosity got the show they were expecting.
Just a couple miles away, modern rock favorite Fall Out Boy brought its high-energy brand of catchy pop-punk to the Chain Reaction the next evening.
“I guess this was the worst kept secret ever,” Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz told the packed venue.
The pop-punk stars played a strong 75-minute set at the insanely small Anaheim venue. It was one of the last shows the band played before it kicks off its headlining Honda Civic Tour, where it will be playing to sold-out arenas of more than 20,000 people.
“When we thought about doing this, we were talking about doing a 15-minute lip-syncing set,” said Wentz, “but then we realized that [singer] Patrick [Stump] can actually sing and that I just got out of rehab.”
“I forgot my Go-Go boots,” Stump added.
It wasn’t that long ago when Fall Out Boy called small venues like this one home. Then 2005’s “From Under The Cork Tree” came out, and singles like “Sugar, We’re Going Down Swinging” and “Dance, Dance” led the album to sell more than three million copies worldwide.
It took the band’s latest album “Infinity On High” less than a month after its release in February to sell a million copies. The band is definitely one of the most popular pop-rock bands out right now.
But all the fame and success aside, Fall Out Boy gave concertgoers a powerful 16-song set that drew from all three of the band’s full-length albums.
Kicking off with “Dance, Dance,” the band looked very much at home on the small stage. The band members jumped off walls, spit water into the air and dove into the crowd to show that it didn’t need flashy stage setups or fancy pyrotechnics to entertain.
Staples like “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy,” “Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner” and “Sugar, We’re Going Down Swinging” mixed well with new songs like “Thriller,” “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” and “Thnks fr th Mmrs” to get the crowd dancing and moshing.
The set came to an end with the long-absent “Grenade Jumper,” followed by “Saturday.” The crowd applauded loudly while the band took its bows and disappeared into the night.
Although both shows were very different from each other, seeing a major headlining act in a smaller setting is always exciting. Even though both acts will return to playing sold-out arenas soon, these intimate shows are ones that I won’t soon forget.
