Bowling for Soup Farewell UK Tour with
Patent Pending
Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool and
Birmingham
October 12th, 13th, 18th and 19th, 2013
For the last few October's we have made
sure we have seen Bowling for Soup during their UK October tour, however
following the tour announcement in April
we realised that our October's will never be the same again. This year Bowling for Soup announced that
this will be their last ever full length UK October tour, so instead of going
to one date we decided to wave them off in style by attending four out of the
fifteen.
To ease the pain a little, in June, Bowling for Soup announced that they would
only be bringing one support band with them to allow them to do a longer
set. Luckily the support band they brought
with them was Patent Pending. So we knew
that this tour would be extra special.
Rather than review all four shows
individually I decided I would review them as a whole but as they crammed so
much in this could be a long one.
At the start of each show those members of
the audience that had been lucky enough to purchase the VIP ticket option were
allowed early entry to the venue, which gave them VIP access to an exclusive acoustic
show by Jaret and Erik (2 songs), a copy of the tour poster which is signed by
all four members of the band, first pick off the merch stand and the opportunity
to meet and have your photograph taken with all four members of the band. Last night's acoustic set in Birmingham consisted
of 'Turbulence' and their new single 'Circle'.
Patent Pending are a five piece pop punk
band from Long Island New York consisting of Joe on vocals, Anthony on drums,
Marc and Rob on guitar and vocals and Corey on bass and vocals. Patent Pending
have been together for 12 years but only made their UK debut last year when
they accompanied Bowling for Soup and The Dollyrots on the One Big Happy Tour.
Starting with 'Shake Weight & Moving Crates',
Patent Pending burst onto the stage and immediately had the crowd bouncing and
joining in. Joe even had the whole crowd
'jerking off imaginary d****' at the part of the song where he refers to the
shake weights.
With the ice well and truly broken they
launched into 'Anti Everything' which saw them dancing boy band style during
the slower parts of the song and saw guitarist Marc Kantor performing his
guitar solo from the venues balcony.
Next on the set list was the crowd pleaser
'Psycho in Love' which requires maximum audience participation as this song not
only has the audience waving their pirate hooks in the air (hooked index
fingers) but it was host to the first ever Olympic crowd swimming
championships.
For those unfamiliar with
this 'sport' (which I'm guessing is most people), this is the part of the show
where Joe and Corey split the crowd in half, run up the middle of the audience
and crowd swim (surf) to see who can
return to the stage the fastest. As at
the end of last night's show the score stood at 7-2 to Corey, with four shows
left to play.
It didn't help
that the crowd dropped Joe during the Liverpool show meaning that he effectively
drowned. Joe decked out in arm bands (or swimmy floats, as he called them) and
swimming goggles whilst crowd surfing really is a sight not to be missed.
Follow this with new songs 'Let Go' and 'Classic
You' which features Bowling for Soup's Jaret Reddick and 'Hey Mario', which saw
Joe and the audience jumping for coins Super Mario style and you know you have
a recipe for success.
Throw in a rendition of 'Soft Kitty' and
the theme tune to 'The Big Bang Theory' and you have the perfect set for maximum
audience participation.
Allowing their serious side to show for
just a little while, they slow things down with the powerful 'One Less Heart to
Break', a song written following the suicide of a close friend of the band.
Before singing this song Joe explains to the audience
how a note left by their friend was not enough of an explanation of why he felt
had to take his own life and how that affected those he had left behind.
For the guys in Patent Pending this is a very
big deal. Patent Pending openly support
the 'To Write Love On Her Arms' charity which is a non-profit movement dedicated to
presenting hope & finding help for people struggling with depression,
addiction, self-injury, & suicide. Their
latest pledge campaign for their new album 'Brighter' even stated that 5% of
all money raised would be donated to this charity. Although written about such a serious subject
'One Less Heart To Break' is a song you can't help but love and Joe's speech at
the end of the song is guaranteed to give you goose bumps, or in many cases for
the Second Family (Patent Pending's fanbase), reduce you to tears.
Closing
their set with Douchebag, Patent Pending leave the audience fired up and ready
for round two with Bowling for soup.
It is clear
to see why the UK has embraced Patent Pending in the way that they have, as all
of their songs are completely relatable and the five guys in the band really
are the nicest, humblest and most genuine guys you will ever meet. Roll on April when they return to the UK!
Bowling for Soup hail from the great state
of Texas and consist of Jaret on vocals and guitar, Erik on bass and vocals ,
Chris on guitar and vocals and Gary on
drums. They have been together as a band
for 19 and a half years and I guarantee that even if you have never heard of
their band you will know at least one of their songs.
I will not be commenting on every song that
they played during their set as Bowling for Soup played a massive 30 songs from across their entire career.
As soon as you hear the chant at the beginning
of 'Here Comes Bowling For Soup' you know your night is about to get 100%
better.
Bowling for Soup shows are all ages shows
and there are many young kids in the audience so when you mix a few fart jokes
and on stage banter about topics that include sex and the topic of 'sticky
socks', the parents in the audience are going to be guaranteed some pretty
awkward questions on the car ride home, as Jaret quite happily points out with
his announcement of "You're welcome!"
A perfect example of this, is the song 'My
Wena'. In Birmingham Jaret announced to
the audience that it is a song about puppies, however at the Liverpool show, were
there weren't as many kids, he was honest and said it was about his penis. This song is definitely worth a listen and
then you can make your own mind on the subject matter!
For the last few years Bowling for Soup
have had their very own on stage bar so that their tour buddies can hang out
with them and join in throughout the show, which queues the songs 'Let's Go To
The Pub' and 'Hooray For Beer'. Both of
these songs are high energy, fun songs that really get you in the spirit of the
whole show, as the majority of the show feels like you are hanging out in the
pub with your friends listening to their banter while they play a few songs
along the way.
Rob from Patent Pending makes a couple of
guest appearances during the BFS set playing the guitar and at one point even
takes Gary's place at the drum kit.
While during 'Ohio' Patent Pending hi-jack the song and finish it off
while BFS go and drink their beers.
Front man Jaret Reddick has his finger in
so many pies I'm unsure how he manages to keep up with himself. Not only are they one of the greatest pop
punk bands in the world but Jaret is also the voice of Chuck E Cheese,(a
cartoon mouse which advertises a large American pizza restaurant chain).
This is not Bowling for Soups only cartoon experience as they wrote and
recorded the theme song to the hit cartoon show 'Phineas and Ferb', and no
Bowling for Soup concert would be complete without the a rendition of that
song. The theme to Phineas and Ferb is
the request you hear shouted for the most!
Accompanying them on the tour is Ryan Hamilton
the other half of Jaret's 'other' band People on Vacation who played an
acoustic show at the Union Chapel at the start of the tour.
Each night Ryan has joined BFS on stage to
play 'Prettiest Girl In The World' from their album 'The Summer And The Fall'. However even such a lovely song could not be
taken completely seriously, as during the Manchester show Ryan sang the song
without his pants and during the Liverpool show he performed the song in a
flowery dress following a dare from Chris Burney.
I have also been told that on one night he
performed it in his pyjamas! I have also seen photographs on Facebook and the internet showing him proposing to his girlfriend Holly during the final show.
Always original, BFS are the only band I
have ever seen that provide you with a 'musically enhanced photo opportunity'
during 'Punk Rock 101'. This means that
they stop playing 'Punk Rock 101', grab a beer and take their position in both
the centre and at either side of the stage and pose so you can get a group
photo of the band.
Other songs included in tonight's set
included 'Almost', 'The Bitch Song', 'Really Cool Dance Song', 'No Hablo
Ingles', 'Emily', 'High School Never Ends', 'Girl All The Bad Guys Want',
'Stacey's Mom', 'The Last Rock Show',
'Shut Up And Smile', 'I Don't Wanna Rock', 'Ohio', 'Suckerpunch', 'My
Hometown', 'Friends O Mine', 'When We Die', 'Turbulence', 'Critically
Distained', 'Since We Broke Up', 'Envy', and 'Right About Now'.
Ending the set with their current single 'Circle',
a cover of Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, a softer and more serious
song, BFS leave the stage to huge encore shouts from the crowd.
Returning to the stage for their encore
they start with a song about New Zealand, called 'Belgium' (of course!), which
any fan will know sneaked its way onto 5
of their studio albums in some version or another. Follow this with a punk cover of Britney
Spears ' ... Baby One More Time', which has the audience which ranges between
2,500 to 4,000 depending on the venue, singing along.
Finishing with '1985' the four Texans leave
the stage to thunderous applause and chants.
Unfortunately there were a couple of
incidents that did cast a shadow over the shows. During the Manchester show BFS encountered
some difficulties with their sound but these were soon rectified and didn't
detract too much from the music.
However, the show at Rock City in Nottingham was badly organised as
there were only two security personnel manning the doors and they only had one
entrance open instead of using the whole front of the building meaning that many
members of the audience didn't gain entry to the venue until well after Bowling
for Soup had taken to the stage. I was
very disappointed to have missed the whole of Patent Pending's set and only
just made it inside for the start of Bowling for Soup.
These problems aside, I had an amazing time
with these two bands. No two shows are
ever the same and it's clear to see that October will never be the same again.
Anthony of Patent Pending (Left) and Corey of Patent Pending (above)
Joe, Rob and Corey of Patent Pending (below left) and Rob (below right)
Marc (above left) and Joe (above right)
Patent Pending in action (right)
Jaret and Erik of Bowling for Soup (above left)
Bowling for Soup in action (above right)
Erik of Bowling for Soup (left)
Ryan joins Bowling for Soup (above) and Chris from Bowling for Soup (left)
Jaret of Bowling for Soup (right)
On Friday we made the four hour journey and
travelled down to Peterborough, where hostess Liz had opened her house to the
fifty eager fans waiting for the Texas duo.
Unfortunately we missed the start of their set as we encountered very
heavy traffic on the way down and I believe we missed 'Lonely Fish' and a
rendition of 'Phineas and Ferb', but we did have the pleasure of hearing most
of the set including 'It's Not Love', 'Where Do We Go', 'Lonely Chris' (a
parody of 'Lonely Fish' dedicated to one of the fans in attendance) and Bowling
for Soups latest single, 'Circle'. 
After Jaret and Ryan finished their set
they joined in the party with the rest of us, chatting and chilling out with
everyone who wanted to talk to them.
They also posed for photographs, including posing on the sofa with a
young child who had wanted to meet them but had fallen asleep. Jaret posed as though he had passed out on
the sofa and Ryan as though he was about to beat him up. Luckily the child in question woke up before
the end of the party and actually got to meet his idols but I would love to
have seen his face the next day when he saw the pictures his parents had staged
with Jaret and Ryan.
Between songs we were treated to plenty of
banter from Jaret and Ryan. Whether it's
Ryan comparing himself to Erik Chandler (of Bowling for Soup) or Ryan sharing that
Jaret tweets while he poops, these guys make you feel as though you are hanging
with the cool kids and really make you feel part of the People on Vacation
family.
