Review and Photo Copyright © Christopher Ryan
Pop-punk legends Bowling For Soup strike their way back into the UK on tour this month and we were there to witness this treat in all its glory.
Bowling For Soup
Everyone’s favourite soup! Full of adult humour and potty mouth jokes and happy catchy music which makes you want have a good time. Excited to be back in Manchester the pop-punk party bus is here and it’s here to stay so grab a beer and hop on board. With huge electric monitors full of live moments from the show, animations and snippets from the past it helps set the tone along with smoke and bad jokes. In an unplanned moment Chris Burney pants sort of fell down due to a belt malfunction which gave Jaret Reddick perfect ammunition for some adult humour and the audience plenty of laughs at the guitarist’s expense.
But that’s what’s great about BFS it’s a band who are far from serious who can mock and take the mick out of each other with no harm intended. All they want to do is have a good time and make memories that’ll last, even if it’s not suitable for a younger audience. Along with the banter many, many gems were played which we all love such as High School Never Ends, 1985, Punk Rock 101 along with a few random covers thrown in for good measure. All I can say, even if you think you’ve outgrown this sort of thing, it just works and it works really well. Then, as if to spoil us more a brand new track Alexa Bliss was played.
So, in a nutshell, if you want a good time Bowling For Soup is the band for you!
Simple Plan
Its pop-punk time and time take a trip down memory lane back into our teenage years with Simple Plan. These guys did not disappoint one bit. Truly embracing the pop-punk spirit, the band bounced around on stage loving every minute in front of a crowd who were just as excited as the Canadians appeared to be.
So excited to be playing in Manchester again frontman Pierre exclaimed that this was apparently the happiest and the best crowd so far on the tour. In fact, so happy to be in Manchester he was soon off the stage and onto the barrier high-fiving everyone. It was a party atmosphere from the get go as beach balls were launched into the crowd during “Summer Paradise”, “Addicted” got everyone bouncing and, to add to the feel good vibes, they threw in “What’s New Scooby Doo”. There was also the obligatory Oasis cover that seems to be the norm for bands playing the city these days although the sight of thousands of fans singing it back is simply mesmerizing. Drummer Chuck Comeau takes over vocals then stage dives into the crowd during their hit single “I’m Just A Kid” before the band finish with a stunning rendition of “Perfect”.
Not Ur Girlfrenz
Openers Not Ur Girlfrenz might be young but they put on a heck of a show! The all-female power-pop band kicked off the show with their high spirited upbeat vibes and energetic pop-punk. All smiles, the girls performed upcoming new track “Game Over” for the first time. Elsewhere their cover of My Chemical Romance hit “I’m Not Okay” and set closer the Spice Girls’ smash “Wannabee” predictably went down a storm. Young they may be, the girls have that teenage banter, some great tunes and bags of
energy. In fact, this kind of youthful exuberance is exactly what we need in the world right now.
