BOWLING FOR SOUP

PLUS: Forever The Sickest Kids, The Dollyrots and ‘A’
Corn Exchange, Cambridge
06/10/2010

Words: Caroline Pawson Photos: Emma Bowdidge

Tonight was the night that Bowling for Soup came back to Cambridge, I was surprised that they were coming back here on the ‘Can’t Get Rid Of Us Tour’, as they hadn’t sold out at this venue last year on the ‘Party In Your Pants’ tour. Cambridge was the first night of the tour, so there were high hopes for the gig, as the line up is strong.

First band of the night was ‘A’. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances they had to swap their main support slot to being the first act on. The band went into their first song of the night, which was ‘Rush Song’. Jason was moving back and forth while on the mic, interacting with the crowd between songs and also making a big effort to get us to sing ‘Na Na Naa’ back to him during ‘I Love Lake Tahoe’, while Daniel P. Carter who has  joined ‘A’ once again after their departure 7yrs ago was jumping around the stage and high-fiving Mark on guitar after a few songs. Jason had said that they had only had one rehearsal before heading out on stage, but they seemed to perform very well for one rehearsal. They had saved the one song which I do know of theirs for last, which is ‘Nothing’. The band have got a charm about them, it’s a shame that they only tour, every so often.

The second band of the night were The Dollyrots, I had met them beforehand, and Kelly (who is the lead singer) had to save her voice for when she was on stage. I had listened to a couple of their songs on the internet beforehand to get a feel of what they were about, and I think that they are one of those bands that sound better live then they do on a recording.

'A'

The main support of tonight were fellow Texas rockers, Forever the Sickest Kids, now these lads had got stuck in my head since I had first listened to their songs on YouTube. So was looking forward to whether they would deliver on stage. Fortunately they did. There was lots of craziness going on on-stage while these were on, you didn’t know where to look. They played a load of songs from their first album, including ‘Whoa Oh’, and ‘She’s a Lady’. Austin and Jonathan were pulling faces throughout their set, and Caleb was joining in doing rude gestures, along to the lyrics in a couple of the songs. By the end of their set, Jonathan was encouraging people to crowd surf, and he had disappeared into the crowd for a little while. They have got to be one of the most energetic bands I’ve seen in a while!

Forever The Sickest Kids

It was then time for the band that we had all been waiting to see, Bowling for Soup! Before they came on stage, the band theme tune was being played, and from where I was standing, I was able to see Chris, and Eric getting their instruments on. They went into their first song of the night. There were different graphics and music videos of theirs playing on the screen behind them throughout the whole of their set. They played some of the more classic songs such as ‘I’m Gay’, ‘High School Never Ends’, ‘The Bitch Song’ and ‘Shut Up and Smile’, as well as songs from the Sorry for Partyin’ album, such as ‘My Wena’ and ‘No Hablo Ingles’. The band even fitted in a cover of ‘That’s Not My Name’ by The Ting Ting’s and also played the theme tune to hit Disney channel program Phineas and Ferb. There was a lot of dirty humour between the members as they swigged their beer between each song. They even gave the crowd a chance to get a ‘Musically Enhanced Photo Opportunity’, where all of the band members came together and posed on each side of the stage. Before the band had gone off of stage, they played ’1985′. The crowd were chanting ‘BFS, BFS, BFS’. So eventually they came back on, thanked the crowd for coming down to see them and finished off their set with the first single of their last album ‘A Really Cool Dance Song’ which went down insanely well.

Tonight was a great start to the rest of the tour!

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