BOWLING FOR SOUP, LIT, THE DOLLYROTS

Bowling For Soup will still give you a fantastic evening's entertainment

BOWLING FOR SOUP, LIT, THE DOLLYROTS
Bristol: O2 - 18th APRIL 2022

As line ups go, this one excited me the first time I saw it, which seems bloody ages ago now. I've been a fan of Bowling For Soup for, bloody hell, twenty years now, after reviewing their first major label release 'Let's Do It For Johnny'. The first time I saw them at this venue I was very easily the oldest person there who wasn't dropping a teenager off, but tonight it's a different matter, as whilst the teenagers are still there there's a wide range of ages and I'm certainly not the oldest.

First onstage are husband and wife team The Dollyrots, aided by a drummer whose name I don't know. Whilst they've had plenty of releases the only one I know is 'Because I'm Awesome' from 2007, but it doesn't really matter because The Dollyrots throw disposable, fun Punk Pop about like STDs at an orgy. 'My Best Friend's Hot', 'Jackie Chan', 'I Know How To Party' and their fantastically fun cover of the Melanie classic 'Brand New Key' (complete with "Oo Arr Oo Arr" from the crowd raised on the Wurzels' take) are all wonderful. Vocalist/bassist Kelly does a fine job during the short set, and I'm very sure they make a few new friends tonight.

The last time I saw Lit was when they did an anniversary tour for their absolute monster album 'A Place In The Sun', and that concert was one of the best I've ever seen. Tonight we get a few from that album, plus some other tracks and their new single 'Kicked Off The Plane'. Unlike the other two bands on tonight, Lit are more of a heavy riff based band, but one with superb hooks throughout. The opening duo of 'Four' and 'Zip Lock' works perfectly, and closing with 'Over My Head' and 'My Own Worst Enemy' makes their set a sandwich to be proud of. A Jay Popoff looks fit and fierce on vocals, though is a little quiet at times in an otherwise good mix. The band don't put a foot wrong, and 'Kicked Off The Plane' plus another new song played over the PA as they go off show that the next album should be worth a gander.

And so to the headliners, who actually come out to a special song they recorded to come out onstage to, telling us how much fun we're going to have and all that. It's stupidly charming and gets us ready for a superb opening salvo of 'My Hometown' and 'Ohio (Come Back To Texas)', two of my favourite BFS songs so I'm happy from the off. Mind you, the stage is set for how things will pan out as they stop for a chat mid-way through the second song and we all learn about circumcision! Seriously, there is a LOT of chat about dicks in their show, but they're such nice guys you don't mind. It's great to hear their new song 'I Wanna Be Brad Pitt' live, and the crowd sings along even if they're new to it, and that pretty much sums up the BFS approach to songwriting. Vocalist/guitarist Jaret Reddick sounds fantastic, though as I haven't seen them for some years now I'm rather astounded by his massive weight gain – it's like he ate the previous Jaret and stole his powers. Anyhoo, it's all about the music, and BFS have enough great songs that would fill their eighty-minute time slot three times over, though they still like to chat as much as possible. For example, mid set we are treated (well...) to the 'Bowling For Soup Comedy Jam', where each member tells us a joke and we pick our favourite. There's not too many bands that could get away with wasting valuable song time with this sort of silliness, but these guys have enough charm, thankfully. Highlights are numerous, and they wisely stick mainly to the singles, with the videos sometimes playing behind them, with my favourites being 'Punk Rock 101', 'High School Never Ends' and 'Emily', though there are no duff tracks to be heard. They even play their one minute 'Phineas & Ferb' cartoon theme tune, because why the hell wouldn't you?! It's odd to look at the band and think how much older they look than when you first heard of them, but it's been twenty-two years and, as they say: "Getting old sucks, but everybody's doing it". They may not sell as many records these days, or leap about the stage so much, but make no mistake, Bowling For Soup will still give you a fantastic evening's entertainment, so catch 'em while you can.

Alan Holloway