- Manchester Academy 1 - 25th October 2009 -
Support : MC Lars, Zebrahead.
Toilet humour, sex, drugs and sister jokes; nothing is off the table tonight as Bowling For Soup return with more of the same ‘silly-but-cheerful’, low-brow, comedic, pop-punk that catapulted them to fame all those years ago. Fifteen years and ten albums into their career, the Texan punks have generated quite a following as young and old gather at the Academy to witness the aptly named ‘Party In Your Pants’ tour. MC Lars kicks off the rock bonanza, joined briefly onstage by BFS lead Jaret Reddick for ‘Download this Song’. Zebrahead are next up to bat, hitting a home run with a unique blend of high octane, rap-punk, warming the crowd to boiling point with jumping competitions, ‘party arms’ and a ‘Wall of Death’, (renamed the ‘Wall of Sunshine, Lollypops and Rainbows' for ‘legal reasons’).
Bowling For Soup do in fact appear to be 12 year-olds stuck in adult bodies. Backed by a video of them prancing around in anatomically-correct ‘erection suits’, tracks from new album ‘Sorry For Partying’ are mixed with classics; ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’, ‘Punk Rock 101’ and ‘High School Never Ends’. The orgy of barely-concealed euphemisms, condom balloons, (a.k.a. the penis Zeppelin), and lycra hot pants indicate that for America’s most beloved party-band, High School really hasn’t ended. An un-inhibited celebration of juvenile humour, they pause and crank up the house lights, posing with beers and dancing to Kool & The Gang's 'Celebration' at the front of the stage, before strutting to the side to give a ‘Bowling For Soup photo-op’.
They may be the poster-boys for fart jokes but one area where fifteen years of experience is visible is the show itself. Bursting with professionalism the no doubt, painstakingly-constructed combination of comedic banter, giddy practical jokes and humorous videos provide constant and consistent entertainment without being awkward, stilted or over- rehearsed.
Verdict : Ending with ‘1985’, (choruses sung in ‘your best Antonio Banderas accent’ and ‘falsetto’, respectively), the band who are ‘much too old to be this damn young’ score an ‘A’ for effort.
10/10
By Beth Cook
Bowling For Soup's latest album, 'Sorry For Partying', released October 12th 2009 on Jive, is available from online stores : http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=272123
Tour dates and ticket information : http://www.bowlingforsoup.com/tour/
