Review: Vanessa Monaghan with Kieran Frost
Photos: Kieran Frost
Bowling For Soup with Guests: The Academy October 22nd 2010
The Academy played host to a jammers 14+ gig with a line up of 4 bands, the show starting at 6 and decibel levels tipping red (and thats just the screaming), what better way to start a bank Holiday weekend?
The LA based ‘The Dollyrots’ opened proceedings with female vocalist, Kelly Ogden at the helm. The three piece band have just released their debut album ‘A little messed up’ and entertained the crowd with their brand of bubble gum punk.
UK rockers ‘A’ were next up. They released their first album in 1998, when many of the audience were toddlers. Not a lot has been heard of the band since their top ten single ‘Nothing’ in 2001. This seems to confuse the audience a little. On an evening of pop/punk mayhem, guitar riffs reminiscent of Queen or even Reef. Unfortunately even frontman heroics from the five piece couldn’t convert the ‘kids’.
Things definitely stepped up a couple of notches with ‘Forever the Sickest Kids’. From the off, these pop punk upstarts had the audience in the palm of their hands. Despite seeming quite young, the band showed remarkable showmanship and understanding of their audience. All 6 members, yes six, worked the crowd and to the uninitiated, these guys easily could have been the headline act. The audience obeyed their every command and despite this writer not knowing the band, the majority of the audience did, singing word after word in perfect time.
‘Forever the Sickest Kids’ could easily make their way to a bigger stage, the audience loved them, the drummer was a wicked mohawk, they have a keytar in the band and the lead singer works his ass off. If the audience members in front of us are any indication of what’s to come, these guys are destined for greater things. Brilliant reaction to the band.
Bowling for Soup had a lot to live to and as the chants of BFS took hold around the venue. Starting off with a cartoon intro for ‘Here come Bowling for Soup’, the band blow kisses to the audience as they come onto the stage. ‘Star Song’ is met by a chorus of singing and hands in the air clapping, which continues into ‘No Hablo Ingles’.
An interesting fact which impressed me: The promoters have obviously thought of the young ‘uns ears, with the front of house PA slightly lower than other gigs in the venue. No need for earplugs tonight. Though it did take a few songs to get Jaret Redic’s vocals loud enough in the mix.
BFS seem to be pretty much a party novelty band, not taking themselves too seriously though as the band push on with age, this seems to be a bit contrived. A bra arrives on stage, which could only be then placed on guitarist Chris’ head. Enter Beavis and Butthead type remakes. It’s seems hard for the audience to relate to the band continuously as they drift in and out of concentration with what’s going on.
During ‘Ohio’, the band do the obligatory ‘Come stay with us in Texas’ routine while too many songs start with ‘This is a song about … and it goes like this’. It all seems like its just going through the motions for BFS.
Maybe I’m getting old but one more than one occasion, the band said some stuff that wasn’t entirely appropriate for a 14+ audience. When they figure out that mid term break is on, they make some comment about staying home Monday to masturbate. Totally funny if you’re a 15 year old bloke. But are comments about ‘wrecking my wife’s vagina’ and asking the girls if their knickers are wet totally necessary? Its time to act your age guys.
The band do have some silly clever tricks up their sleeves. During ‘Punk Rock 101’, they stop mid-song for a photo op for the audience to get their decent gig photo, before continuing with the rest of the track. A clever inclusion of ‘Friends, Chicks, Guitars’ (available for free download from their website) gets the hands clapping again. ‘The Bitch Song’ has the audience in fine voice, singing the lyrics without the help of Redic.
BFS are joined by Mark and Jason from A for a ‘metal’ song. Their rendition of Bon Jovi’s ‘You give love a bad name’ goes down well and shows A’s love of guitar riffs.
The band work their way through ‘Shut up and Smile’ as Jaret tells us he’s going commando and asks the audience if they are the greatest band in the world. They get a good response but it wasn’t in the same league as ‘Forever The Sickest Kids’. Jaret then mentions that they’ve been on tour in Europe 23 times, so technically they could be any of the audience’s Dads. Bit of a buzz kill that.
The majority of the audience seem to be there for ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’ and ‘1985’ which get a good response. A topless crowd surfers is passed to the front to security during the mayhem. The band leave the stage to rapturous applause.
The encore of ‘A really cool Dance Song’ summed up the night really, describing how they need a number one to pay for their kid’s college. Saying that it sounded great and left the audience on a high. Taken from ‘Sorry for Partyin’, it has a pounding rhythm and had the audience bouncing as they remembered they had twenty minutes of freedom before their lifts collected them.
BFS might have the bigger name and might have been headlining tonight but for me and from reaction throughout the venue ‘Forever The Sickest Kids’ stole the show.
