Monday 1 November 2010

Bowling for Soup - Corn Exchange 20/10/09

***Published October 2009


Is there anything you could expect from a band called ‘Bowling for Soup’ other than complete stupidity? Well, no. But the crowd of fifteen year olds didn’t come here for anything life changing and neither did I. BFS are an unbelievably catchy pop-punk band formed in 1994 Texas Years later they are still playing the same tunes with the same sense of naivety and immaturity. Their original fanbase may have grown up a little but they sure haven't.


The tour is to promote their seventh album ‘Sorry for Partyin’ and they are supported by The Leftovers, MC Lars and Zebrahead. The three sets gave me plenty of time to work out how to use the expensive camera I had rented for the evening, but not much else really.


The set begins with their 2000 single ‘The Bitch Song’ which tells the story of a man so devoted to his lover it makes him stop caring about her horrible personality (‘You’re a bitch But I love you anyway/you can’t sing but you still put me to sleep’). Surprisingly, this song is pretty sincere in its own little way. The set continues and the security staff have a hard time dealing with the sea of sweat covered school kids crowd surfing over the barrier and upsetting the photographers.


The band are sure to fill their set with the regular crowd pleasers such as ‘High School Never Ends’ ‘Punk rock 101’ then my favorite ‘Girl all the bad guys want’. Except a handful of new tracks including the moderately funny ‘My Wena’ - where singer Jared declares his love for a girl called Wena (or his penis, It’s not made entirely clear).


Of course, their set finishes with the 2004 single ‘1985’ which lasts a good three minutes longer than the original recording because lead singer Jared wanted to hear the audience sing the final chorus in an Antonio Banderas accent. The audience are having fun but nowhere near as much fun as the actual band are having. I’m not ashamed to admit that I still love this type of music and I might not ever grow out of it. Maybe it’s because the music reminds me of past times or maybe its because I’m secretly still 13 years old. Either way you’d be surprised how often I put away my Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen CDs to be replaced with this joyful brand of pop-punk silliness.

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