Blame it on the credit crunch, but there was something distinctly low-budget about Fall Out Boy’s Friday night set at the O2. The Illinois band have a big, polished sound on their five albums but strode on to a barren stage with no giant screens or banners.

This turned attention to the dynamic between the four musicians on stage, which is one of the strangest in popular music. There’s Patrick Stump, who sang but rarely spoke; dreamboat bassist Pete Wentz, who spoke but rarely sang; and two hairy individuals on guitar and drums, who could have been drafted in on the day without anyone batting an eyelid.

Together, Fall Out Boy write music of a pop-punk persuasion for a teenage audience — even the spelling of their set opener, Thnks fr th Mmrs, is in text-speak (that’s “Thanks for the Memories”, if you were wondering).

Occasionally, as with the glam-rock stomp I Don’t Care, they struck gold. They were ambitious, too, covering Michael Jackson’s Beat It on the same stage he’ll be performing in July. Inevitably, it lacked the magic of the 1983 original, but the cynic in me suspects Jackson’s 2009 version may too.

Unfortunately, the set soon drifted into the banal. The dirge of Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes was accompanied by a slight feeling that the band were going through the motions. Even in tough times, the fans deserved a more generous performance.