LIVE REVIEW: Bowling For Soup. (PHOTOS)

Feb 13, 2016
3 min read

Our team went out to review and photograph Bowling For Soup on their return to the UK. Here's the verdict including a photo gallery.

Rain didn't stop the forces coming together for a night of drunken festivities and when MC Lars finished hyping up the crowd with his Dead Prez freestyle, the crowd were bubbling.

So it seemed fitting that Bowling For Soup’s latest tour came with it’s own hash tag #HowAboutAnotherRound. How about another round indeed! The room came alive when the Texas four took to the stage as a headliner after a three-year absence. Instantly it was noticeable that the band hadn't lost the excitable spark they were known for, but let’s just say they had changed their image. (After all it’s unfair to slate someone over their image because they may

have endured something personally unpleasant). So that’s the elephant in the room discussed, let’s move on to the music!

Jaret, Chris, Erik and Gary brought the energy, opening with their own tailored intro ‘Here Comes Bowling For Soup’ before sliding straight into crowd pleasers ‘The Bitch Song’ and ‘Emily’. You forget how many cracking tunes these guys have, and personally not owning any of their CD’s, I surprised myself when I found myself singing along with a grin on my face to the ‘Punk Rock 101’, ‘1985’, ‘High School Never Ends’ and ‘Almost’ among others.

I’m glad they’re over their adversity as we truly missed them, and Manchester welcomed them back to their natural habitat with open arms. It was at this point the guys explained the on-stage bar, as

‘Punk Rock 101’ was thrashed through the PA, Jaret and co. stopped mid-song for a drinks break. Usually this would be seen as incredibly unprofessional, but it’s punk rock, so you take it with a pinch of salt and laugh at the tongue in cheek mentality. Speaking of breaks, it seems as though the guys have multiple breaks throughout their shows nowadays to catch their breath, maybe even going to the extent of playing songs at a faster tempo than the record. At times I found myself wanting to sing along, but not enjoying the extra pace of the songs. It took part of the spectacle away for me, personally. I have received a lot of feedback about the show being amazing, so maybe I was just a touch too far back to absorb the atmosphere of the room.

The highlight of the show was the punk rock medley; Blink 182 met Green Day, New Found Glory, Good Charlotte and Jimmy Eat World in a tirade of punk rock deliciousness to reaffirm the message that punk rock is not dead. This lit up the night like a Chinese New Year spectacular. Followed up was a great performance of Fountain’s Of Wayne’s ‘Stacy’s Mom’ and while Bowling For Soup had regular intervals throughout the night, the Manchester rowdies found ways to entertain themselves with ‘Kolo/Yaya Toure’ chants.

Both main support acts found themselves on stage at varying points in the night, The Dollyrots came on to perform a collaborative effort ‘Love Ya, Love Ya, Love Ya’, and Lacey entered the frame to

celebrate their EP launch with champagne which was a kind gesture from Jaret and the boys.

For the encore, the crowd chanted ‘Soup There It Is’ and it was reciprocated by arguably the best pop punk song ever to grace the Earth. ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’.

Bowling For Soup smashed it.