PORTLAND – High screeching, shrill screaming, glow necklaces, flip-flops and bubblegum.

No, this sure wasn’t your father’s rock concert.

Teens made up the vast majority of this sold-out throng of 7,000 and it showed, sounded and smelled (think strong perfume) as Cumberland County Civic Center played host to a three-band concert Thursday. The featured guests were Hawthorne Heights, the All-American Rejects, and Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour headliner Fall Out Boy on Thursday night.

First the great before getting into the good, bad and ugly.

The lineup itself was better than solid with three established, quality acts in a (somewhat) local venue. All three groups were energetic, enthused and engaging with the crowd. The crowd was enthusiastic, as the constant cheering, nonstop crowd surfing and even a little circle pit moshing attested, and the bands seemed genuinely appreciative.

The bands even got into it as 11 songs in, one of FOB’s guitarists dived out into the crowd while playing as security men tried to keep exuberant fans from dragging him down to keep as a souvenir.

The good included the fact that all the groups started on time, and the crowd wasn’t allowed to get listless.

The bad was the way performance time was divvied up among the bands. Although all three are popular and established, Hawthorne and All-American were each limited to seven songs in 30-minute sets, while Fall Out Boy got 18 songs during just less than 90 minutes. Huh?

Sure, fans got to hear the high points of all three groups, but it seemed like Hawthorne and All-American got rushed a bit much. At least fans heard Hawthorne hits such as “This is Who We Are and We Are So Last Year” and All-American standards including “Swing, Swing” “Dirty Little Secret” and “Move Along” before they had to clear the stage.

FOB was solid as well and played ALL their hits (then again, with 90 minutes to play and two albums out, that leaves plenty of room to do so). They didn’t waste any time belting out crowd favorites either as the third song on the play list was megahit “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” and saved something for the end with “Dance, Dance” as part of the encore.

And yes, they also played the hit song with what may be the most convoluted title ever: “Our Lawyers Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued.” Phew.

The band also shared a letter sent to them by a fan from Portland who wrote about what he thought the lyrics to one of their popular songs meant. It may seem trivial, but attempting to localize and personalize your show is never a bad idea.

As for the ugly, that would be the tinny sound that made each group’s delivery sound like the treble was turned up too high and some unknown problem that resulted in an entire bank of speakers going off four songs into FOB’s show, muffling the sound noticeably.

Criticisms and complications aside, the show was well worth the $30 general admission price per ticket, and the only dissatisfied customers were most likely the few, older and now deafer chaperones of the many satisfied ones.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205 and aneff@bangor

dailynews.net.