Rocker Pete Wentz and Band Fall Out Boy Attempt "spontaneous" concert at Washington Sq Park

On Monday (12/15), with the goal of channeling some Bob Dylan territory of spontaneous Washington Square Park performances (and maybe some publicity), musician Pete Wentz and his band Fall Out Boy attempted to do the same.

The announcement was posted on Sunday on Wentz’s blog in cryptic style, he wrote: “sometimes it should be free. dangerous. open and in the clear.” Accompanying the post was a picture of Bob Dylan in a park. The blog told fans to show up around 3:30 or 4 p.m. Of the location, he says, “its under construction.” When you click on the Dylan photo, it leads to the Wikipedia entry for Washington Square Park. Pretty clever, eh?

Although it leads one to believe that the park Dylan is sitting in is Washington Square Park (note the REALLY high fence – which is, thankfully, not at WSP), someone posted a comment on Wentz’s blog that it’s actually Sheridan Square.

But then, on Monday, when about 200 people showed up at the park, police arrived and wouldn’t let the band perform amplified or with instruments. Mazzah First hand Source Blog (which covers NYU and NYC) has some photos. Wentz and company performed for a short while a cappella. Not sure how long it went on.

If they had been ready to start performing before the call time for the crowd to appear(it’s doubtful the police were scouring Wentz’s blog for announcements of impromptu, un-permitted performances – it was the crowd that tipped them off), they might have pulled this off.