BOWLING FOR SOUP - BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY, 16 APRIL 2022

BY SHARI BLACK VELVET

Originally billed as ‘Surf The UK Tour’, Bowling For Soup booked eight shows at seaside towns such as Blackpool, Bournemouth and Torquay, bringing with them Orange County legends Lit and female-fronted three-piece The Dollyrots. Luckily for us, three extra shows were added due to demand – in Birmingham. London and Glasgow.

Both The Dollyrots and Bowling For Soup mention the merch table as being their ‘tribute to capitalism’. There are lots of audience members with Bowling For Soup merch on and no doubt a whole lot more at the end of the night. You’ll be proud to sport some Bowling For Soup merch as they’re a quality band that, no matter how many times you’ve seen them, still impress and entertain. They’re now on their 11th studio album and every single one is packed with pop-punk gems. They’re on stage for an hour and a half, although out of these 11 albums, they only play about 14 songs as their set is split up with jokes and entertainment. While some headline acts may play over 20 songs, you don’t feel let down by the lack of songs in a Bowling For Soup set, as their show is so entertaining and amusing. It’s more than a run through of a list of songs.

In fact, before Bowling For Soup even start playing, when the band arrive on stage, Jaret jokes to the audience that it’s weird, they didn’t know everyone was going to show up. “Damn, I’m glad we added this show. It’s great to see you guys”. Rest assured Jaret, we, the crowd, are even more glad you added the show. After Jaret comically sings a couple of lines of ‘Torn’, a song that was played over the speakers before the band came on stage, the Texan band launch into ‘My Hometown’, which sees the frontman sing ‘I hope that you're back up if you've ever been down’. The one thing Bowling For Soup love to do is make the audience feel good, and if ever a band was able to do that, it’s Bowling For Soup. ‘High School Never Ends’, ‘The Bitch Song’ and co. sound as fab as always, while new song ‘I Wanna Be Brad Pitt’ is another treat.

As the show continues, there are lots of jokes, and the band even have a comedy competition where they each tell a joke and the level of audience applause reveals the winner. Drummer Gary Wiseman wins, although we personally would have crowned guitarist Chris Burney the winner. The band do their usual photo op and play crowd pleasers ‘Punk Rock 101’, ‘Almost’, and theme tune ‘Phineas And Ferb’. Bassist Rob Felicetti, in particular, has fun on stage, doing high kicks and laughing along with the crowd.

We almost think there may be no encore as they say “We leave you tonight with the best song ever, ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’”, and it really IS the best song to end the show with – but they return for a surprise ‘Emily’ while ending, for real, with ‘1985’. From start to finish, the show is pure pleasure. It makes you smile, it makes you laugh, and it makes you leave with their infectious hits going round and round in your head. With their new album ‘Pop Drunk Snot Bread’ out this month, these guys definitely cement the fact that pop punk is still alive and kicking ass in 2022.

Read this review in full (including The Dollyrots and Lit) in issue 106 of Black Velvet with other photos

Click HERE for older Bowling For Soup Photos