With a No. 1 album, "Save Rock and Roll," and successful singles such as "My Songs Know What You Did...," "The Phoenix" and "Alone Together," Fall Out Boy's comeback from a three-year hiatus can certainly be deemed a success.

But bassist Pete Wentz says it's been better than he and his bandmates expected.

"The greatest thing about Fall out Boy is it never goes the way I think anyone expects it, and I mean that in the best possible way," says Wentz, 34, who co-wrotes most of the group's songs with singer-guitarist Patrick Stump. "I think there was the expectation that there would be some kind of cult following or that kind of thing. But we didn't know if it was going to be back on the radio or playing arenas and that kind of stuff. That's, like, a wild thing for us.

"So at this pint we're so above and beyond our expectations that anything that happens seems kind of unplanned -- which is something we like, actually."

Wentz adds that after the break, "Fall Out Boy version 2.0 or whatever is is, we care about our craft a lot more." That includes the quartet's current arena tour, which Wentz says the group prepared for much more intensively than it readied for previous big-venue shows.

"The last time we went into arenas we literally had no idea what we were doing," he acknowledges. "We put bells and whistles on stuff, but it was a lot of calling it as we figured it out -- very punk rock, but that kind of punk rock doesn't translate to arenas.

"This time we really went in and tried to design something that could reach everyone in the building, no matter how far away they are. We rehearsed and figured things out instead of trying to figure it out on the fly like we would do before."

Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco and Twenty One Pilots perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Palace, Lapeer Road at I-75, Auburn Hills. Tickets are $39.50 general admission floor and $35 reserved. Call 248-377-0100 or visit www.palacenet.com.