Fall Out Boy’s MANIA Tour is irresistible
Crowd entertained by pyro, confetti and llamas shooting T-shirts out of a cannon
Fall Out Boy is travelling the country with their MANIA Tour. On Sept. 1, I was among a large crowd of a younger generation when it came to Hersheypark Stadium with Against The Current, and Machine Gun Kelly. I am a fan of Fall Out Boy, but as this was the first time I was seeing them and the other two acts, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
Against The Current’s music is new to me. Their music is rock and they are popular with kids my age. Lead singer Chrissy Costanza did a good job of getting people excited to be at the show. They have a new album coming out Sept. 28 called “Past Lives.”
Machine Gun Kelly’s music was also new to me, but there seemed to be a lot of people at the show who knew the words to the songs. His music is rap with big guitars and drums. He is like Eminem and Kid Rock for people my age. The surprise was when he left the stage to come out into the audience, and the crowd went wild!
Next up was the main act, Fall Out Boy. Smoke and fog filled the venue and then with a loud boom, fireworks exploded over the stage, streamers were shot into the sky, and the band took the stage. Behind them was a video screen with ocean waves and an octopus. It had a really cool 3-D effect with the water looking like it was going to spill out of the screen and splash everyone! Flames flew from behind the band, the side of the stage and even out of the head stock of Pete Wentz’s bass guitar. And if you were in the first 20 rows, you could feel the heat of those flames, which added to the excitement of the show!
Fall Out Boy’s setlist included their best known hits like “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”, “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”, and “Centuries”. There were surprises like when lead singer/ guitarist Patrick Stump and bassist Pete Wentz disappeared during Andy Hurley’s drum solo, and showed up behind the soundboard to perform a couple songs so that people in the back of the stadium could see the two guitarists better. Another surprise was the hydraulic press that lifted Patrick and Pete high above the crowd.
There was a quick break from the show when the band and audience sang “Happy Birthday” to Joe
BECHTELSVILLE » NASCAR T.P.Trailers 358 Modified regular Kevin Hirthler, who started from fourth-place by luck of the draw for the 26-car starting field aboard his self-owned No. 117 Crate powered Sportsman entry, took the lead on Lap 7 from Ken Eckert Jr. and raced off with a dominating performance to capture the checkered flag in the fifth annual Freedom 38’er Friday night at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville.
The Boyertown based driver lapped up to the eleventh-place finisher and won the non-stop 38-lapper by a full straightaway in a time of 10:11.28, taking home $1,500 for his efforts.
Hirthler became the fifth different winner in the 5-years, now, that the event has been raced.
For Hirthler, it was his second career Sportsman feature win at the track this season, his first since April 14, 2018, at the popular high-banked third-mile dirt track promoted by the Rogers family.
“With the rainout last Saturday night,” explained the 38-year-old secondgeneration car owner and driver, “the 358 Modified car is pretty much ready to go, so, that gave us some extra time to do a little extra work this past week on the Sportsman car and we got things done, scaled loaded up and just got things done in time to get he by maybe 4 o’clock.
“We just got the Crate engine in it back today. It is legit. It’s a GM Crate engine in it. It is my brothers back up engine and we had nothing but troubles with it the past two-years. After nothing but struggling with the engine it’s hitting on all eight cylinders tonight. We finally got things straightened out. It’s legit. Not a cheater. The engine has all the seals on it and when the track slicks up like it did tonight, it’s easy to drive and it has all kinds of power. Anybody is welcome to check the engine out after the races tonight if they have questions about it,” announced Hirthler.
The top 12 qualifiers out of the heat races redrew for starting positions, with Brian Mady from Milford, PA starting on the pole.
With 18 in the record books, Craig Whitmoyer climbed into the runner-up role, however, Hirthler was pulling away as the laps quickly clicked off.
With 28-laps recorded, Hirthler was now a full straightaway out in front of Whitmoyer, who was running second in front of Eckert Jr. and Mady.
Hirthler went basically unchallenged after he got out in front, easily winning the event over Whitmoyer of Hamburg, Eckert Jr. of Orwigsburg, Mady and Dylan Swinehart of Fleetwood.
Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series MASS 305 Sprint Cars (25-laps) —
1) Austin Bishop, 2) Brendon Poff, 3) Tom Carberry, 4) Eddie Wagner, 5) Jason Dunn, 6) Tim Tanner Jr., 7) CJ Faison, 8) Ryan Stillwagon, 9) Dave Brown, 10) Tyler Reinhardt, 11) Rick Stief, 12) Zack Burd, 13) Jonathan Haegele, 14) Keith Anderson, 15) Christopher Moll, 16) Tom Tanner, 17) Andy Best, 18) Larry McVay, 19) Mike Haggenbottom, 20) Jeff Geiges, 21) Bryant Davis, 22) Chad Connor, 23) Daniel Leaper.
Sportsman (38-laps) —
1) Kevin Hirthler, 2) Craig Whitmoyer, 3) Ken Eckert Jr., 4) Brian Mady, 5) Dylan Swinehart, 6) Ryan Beltz, 7) Dean Bachman, 8) John McGovern, 9) Andrew Kries, 10) Billy Osmun III, 11) Mark Kemmerer, 12) Brad Grim, 13) Mike Kellner, 14) Nate Klinger, 15) Jim Housworth, 16) Brian Hirthler, 17) Louden Reimert, 18) Mike Lisowski, 19) Cale Ross, 20) Brad Arnold, 21) Lex Shive, 22) Mike Mammana, 23) Ryan Higgs, 24) Ryan Lilick, 25) Jesse Landis, 26) Brad Brightbill.