Bowling For Soup @ Birmingham Academy 2, 7th April 2010
It’s a busy night at the Academy tonight with every venue open and hugely contrasting acts playing each room. N-Dubz have sold out the main room and The Broadcast are playing the Academy 3 but it’s the sold-out Academy 2 show which promises the best evening with Texan punk rockers Bowling for Soup headlining the 600 capacity venue.
This is no ordinary Bowling for Soup though, its an all acoustic affair fronted by Jaret and Eric who have left the other band members at home ‘watching cartoons’. It’s the first ever full acoustic tour outside of Texas and the first show of said tour so anticipation is pretty high. First up though is We Sunk Atlantis; having won this support slot through a competition run by Bowling For Soup you think they’d be slightly more excited to be there! Instead they came over bored and disinterested, claiming to not have practised and to have never played acoustically before. The vocals were poor and monotone and the guitars could barely be heard over the crowd.
Bowling for Soup on the other hand, a band that you would never think would do a full acoustic tour succeeded in translating their upbeat poppy songs to acoustic versions seamlessly. The crowd are in for a treat, if you’ve ever seen Bowling for Soup before you know what to expect and even though they’re two men down it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be any less fun.
Opening with Ohio (Come Back to Texas) followed closely by ‘My Wena’ ‘a song about puppies’ apparently; there’s no set-list as such tonight, just a folder of cheat sheets for them to pick from. Taking requests from the crowd ‘Star Song’ is up next, a song they have never played before which seems to be the theme for tonight with a lot of songs played tonight that have ‘never before played in front of people.’ After numerous fart and sex gags Jaret officially welcomed all those who brought children suggesting it can all be explained when they turn 11! Few more responsible adults brought their kids to this show rather than subject them to the horror of N-Dubz!
Claiming to have not practised they manage to pull off a pretty polished show even with the inevitable mistakes that just help to add to the comedic value. As well as original material there’s a few covers thrown in, a nice little melody of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and ‘2 Seater’ gets the crowd singing along. Eric is left to sing a cover of the Pixies ‘Here Comes Your Man’ as Jaret leaves the stage briefly for a toilet break, turns out too many ‘delicious Gary’s’ can wreak havoc on the bladder.
Tonight’s performance is not just about the music, there’s a comedy show thrown in for free. Jaret and Eric have such a great onstage relationship with an amazing connection. It’s like they’re in each others heads making up new high fives and finishing each others sentences it’s great to watch and absolutely hilarious. After numerous shout-outs from the audience for 1985 Jaret comes through with his promise and plays it towards the end ‘to prevent people from walking out!’ and it goes down a storm.
Closing with crowd pleaser ‘Girl All the Bad Guy’s Want’ Jaret and Eric vacate the stage but its not for long as the crowd chants ‘BFS’ they’re back on the stage within minutes. There’s only time for one more song though and they leave it up to the crowd to decide throwing it to a vote. It’s ‘Hooray For Beer’ that gets the loudest cheer up against other classics such as ‘I’m Gay’ which comes in a close second.
It’s a triumphant end to a great show and after sharing a hug the guys leave the stage for the final time. As the crowd slowly files its way out of the academy there are smiles plastered on their faces as they have just been treated to 2 and a half hours of pure comedic genius and some excellent songs thrown in to boot.
Set-List
Ohio (Come back to Texas)
My Wena
Star Song
Guard My Heart
Almost
Don’t Stop Believing- Journey Cover
2 Seater
BFFF
When We Die
Seattle-Cover
Here Comes Your Man- Pixies Cover
Bitch Song
Smoothie King
Running From Your Dad
Belgium
Shut Up and Smile
Every Rose Has its Thorn- Poison Cover
Val Kilmer
I Don’t Wish We Were Dead Anymore
1985
On and On
Me With No You
Girl All The Bad Guys Want
Encore
Hooray For Beer
Review – Hannah Sebestjanowicz
Photos – Shaz R