And tonight I was joined by my 8 year old son Logan! Wait,
what? Logan???? Yup, this was Logan’s first “big” gig, after a small sprinkling
of local things, and hooo boy, did it turn out to be one to remember – forever!
Bowling
For Soup, Texas’ finest proponents of scatological and surprisingly harmonic
beefy pop-punk and a “live” mainstay since our first sighting at Reading
Festival 2000, had actually retired from UK touring since their 2013 jaunt
(which we missed), but had announced another “Howaboutanotherround” tour for
Feb 2016. This had coincided with Rach playing some of their stuff to the kids
in the car, to a very positive and singalong reception, albeit ignoring or
bleeping the “bad words”! Thus we gave some thought to taking Logan (at 8, old
enough for O2 venues) along, only to find the Bristol show sold out, and the
Southampton show coinciding with Rach’s 40th birthday girly trip to
Iceland (yes, the country…!). However, Grandma kindly stepped in with an
over-nighter offer for Kasey, and it was all systems go!
We
dropped Kasey off at Grandmas and hit a sodden M4/ A34 beat route at 5.30,
finding nearby street parking and joining the smallest of the 3 snaking GA
queues to get in the rapidly-filling venue just after 7. Met up with Rich near
the front, stage right, and Logan joined Rich’s daughter Jess on the barriers right down the front. MC Lars kicked things off pronto
with some rabble-rousing compere work and a couple of quickfire rap numbers.
Not my cup of tea, but Logan liked it, enough to stop and chat with MC Lars afterwards,
at the merch stand on the way back from a quick loo trip. Got a quick pic with
our erstwhile compere, and I explained to him that tonight was Logan’s first “big”
gig, which elicited an offer of a free CD from the man. Chap!
Thus
buoyed, we caught most of Nottingham’s Lacey, who plied some clean sounding but
initially inauspicious shouty emo/ pop punk, but then startled with a fine
Jimmy Eat World-alike slow burn tearjerker “Contender”. Their humble attitude
impressed, as did a hooky final number, their new single “Shadow”. Nice! MC
Lars then returned for a couple of literary Edgar Allen Poe-influenced (!) rap
numbers, before 2-girl, one bloke trio The Dollyrots burst on with some initially
thin sounding but improving punky stuff. An early cover of “Brand New Key” (“about
love, not farming equipment,” according to gregarious blonde vocalist Kelly)
was silly fun, and subsequent numbers added some Pixies-ish sleazy guitar
chuntering. Then we had MC Lars back again, for a final rap based on Iggy’s
classic “The Passenger”.
This
bumped us right up to 9.30; the lights plunged and da Soup took the stage to
their own nursery-rhyme silly backing track. “We’re fucking back,
motherfuckers!” announced a surprisingly corpulent vocalist Jaret, and
straightaway I thought there was no point even trying to censor this evening
for Logan…! Ahhh, fuck it! So a boisterous “Bitch Song” and “Emily” kicked
things off, before Jaret paused to compliment Southampton, “scene of the first
ever Bowling For Soup parking lot fist fight!” He went on to state the bleedin’
obvious, bless him, commenting, “some of you may have noticed I’ve got really
fat during the break,” remarking that he’d probably stolen Big Chris’ “fat
love” in the process, but maintaining that this still made him a medium size in America! Then “Ohio”…
Logan
had picked up an “Ohio” t-shirt the previous week to wear to the gig,
celebrating one of his favourite BFS numbers, and as soon as the song moved
into raucous shit-kicking gear, he rocked along, lifting his shirt over his
head to show the band the logo. Inevitably, the observant Jaret noticed him,
then incredibly he broke off from the song before the middle 8 to announce, “there’s
this little kid with an “Ohio” shirt down the front… bring me that child, hand me that child!” So a bouncer lifted Logan out, and up he went, joining
the band onstage! Erik remarked, “it’s pretty badass to be named after
Wolverine!”, Jaret got him to get the crowd to wave their hands, wave at Big
Chris etc. and Logan even sang a line when the band got “Ohio” going again; “there’s
a seat for you at the rodeo and I’ve got every slow dance saved…!”. Ultimately,
the whole audience, some 2,000 (!) in tonight, seemed to be chanting, “Logan!
Logan! Logan!” Utterly amazing!
Well,
that was it; they totally had me after that, could pretty much do no wrong in
the eyes of this incredibly proud and grateful dad. A frantic “Punk Rock 101”
was stopped half-way through for tonight’s first “digitally enhanced” trip to
the “pub”, a mock-up bar at the corner of the stage. Jaret remarked to the guy
holding his girlfriend aloft on his shoulders, “your neck’s gonna smell like a
vagina!”, and before an acoustic interlude of a surprisingly affecting “Passengers”
and a touching “Friends Of Mine”, Chris introduced Jaret as, “acoustic Jaret”
before announcing that acoustic Jaret ate electric Jaret! The effervescent
vocalist again stated that BFS were, “the band you can wave to,” bitching about
Rammstein not waving back when he saw them (!).
A
riotously singalong “1985” saw an acapella intro leading to some fiery
pyrotechnics, before a medley of pop-punk classics (including clips from “All
The Small Things”, “Basketcase” and an excellent snatch of Jimmy Eat World’s “The
Middle”), “to prove that pop punk isn’t dead!” To underline this point further,
a delicious cover of “Stacy’s Mom” followed, before “Almost” needed 2 goes to get
started, Jaret mistakenly playing the riff to “1985” instead, then asking the
line-up of assembled roadies and guests at “the bar” to give him a kick in the
ass, before getting it right next time! Encore “Shut Up And Smile” was an
all-inclusive love-fest, channelling the celebratory mood of the night, then the
finale of “the best song ever”, a rambunctious “Girl All The Bad Guys Want”
ended a thrilling and entertaining set of irresistibly harmonic and singalong
pop punk. Which on tonight’s evidence is quite far from dead!
On
the way out, Logan got lots of attention too; fist bumps from the guys, and
hugs from the girls (!), and even free stuff from the merch stand! An equally sodden
drive home saw us get home at a red-eyed 12.30 am, probably the latest Logan
has ever stayed up. But hey what a way to kick-off his “big” gigging days. All
I can say as a very proud dad is; thank you, Bowling For Soup, Thank You!
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