How About Another Round Tour
Bowling For Soup, The Dollyrots, Lacey and
MC Lars
February
2016
In 2013 Bowling For Soup announced their
farewell UK Tour and left thousands of fans across the UK
devastated.......... but now, two and a
half years later, THEY ARE BACK and even
better than before!
At last summer's Download festival BFS fans
were surprised with the announcement of a reunion tour which immediately
sparked a buzz across the internet and various fan pages.
The anticipation grew even further following
Bowling For Soup's announcement that they would be bringing long time pals The Dollyrots and completing
the line up with Nottingham based band Lacey and rapper MC Lars.
If you look at the various fan pages and
internet sites, this tour has generated a huge buzz and although it has been greeted
with speculation as to why the Bowling For Soup boys have made a return to the
UK, it has only added to the hype for those eager to be re-united with their
heroes and spend an evening in the company of their favourite Texas quartet.
The tour spreads across 15 consecutive
nights in 15 different cities, starting in Glasgow on the 1st of February and
ending in Bristol on the 15th. Being a fan of BFS for quite a few years I
immediately purchased tickets for the three closest shows and following the
announcement of Lacey for the support, I made sure I attended a few more! I have been lucky enough to see 7 shows in
total on this run.
Warming up the crowd each night has been 'post
pop punk lap top rap' artist MC Lars, who spends the first few minutes of his
first set doing just that by leading the crowd in a series of gentle stretching
exercises before launching into the very
energetic 'Hurricane Fresh'.
Unlike most gigs I have been to, MC Lars
lives up to his name as master of ceremonies on this tour, as rather than doing
one set he actually does three short sets,
introducing each of the other bands.
Across his sets he is consistently upbeat
and full of energy and (with the exception of a rather narrow minded crowd at Manchester),
he really does get the energy flowing, the vibe at a high level and his set includes many crowd
pleasers such as 'This Gigantic Robot' and 'Signing Emo'.
Many of his songs call for crowd
participation and whether you are chanting to along to 'Mr Raven' or bobbing
your rock hand dragon in the air to 'Dragon Blood' you are guaranteed to have a
smile on your face.
I have never been a fan of rap music but after
finding myself singing 'Download This Song'
the morning after each show, I found myself searching ITunes for his
back catalogue and I think it is now safe to say that he has won me over and
has gained a new fan! (check him out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ZSdYxdLO8
)
Next up is one of my favourite bands,
Lacey! Anyone who has read my blog
before will know that I have seen these guys on quite a few occasions and they
have never failed to impress me but this time they have excelled themselves.
Following the release of their debut album 'Under
The Brightest Lights' last year, Lacey have continued to make a name for
themselves in the music industry and on the 5th of February they released their
new EP 'I Don't Owe The World A Thing', with their set including three songs from
the EP.
Also included in the set are fan favourite 'Contender'
and 'Tonight' from their debut album, as
well as a cheeky cover of Blink 182's 'Dammit'.
Lead singer Graham Turner has a unique and
powerful voice and can hit notes some singers only dream of, and the intricate
guitar lines add a uniqueness to their sound . Take a listen to Shadow
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09uWFZTR3d8
This is the longest and most prestigious
tour of Lacey's career to date, and they have proved that they deserved to be
there.
Lacey received a fantastic reception from
the crowd on each night that I saw them and given that they have just announced
that they will be embarking on a headline tour in June, this can only mean even
bigger things for them.
Next up are Los Angeles pop punk band The
Dollyrots. I first discovered The
Dollyrots on the 'One Big Happy Tour' that they did with Bowling For Soup back
in 2012, and although I have always stated that I do not generally like female fronted
bands, I have always enjoyed the Dollyrots and found them really listenable.
Made up of Kelly and Luis and joined on
this tour by drummer Rikki Stixx, The Dollyrots play a very highly charged
set.
The relationship between Kelly and Luis is
very clear to see and adds to the dynamic of the band. Add to that the appearance of River the
'Dollytot', each night and it is clear to see that why the fans love this
little pop punk family, and not just for their awesome music.
The Dollyrots set was packed full of old favourites
including 'Jackie Chan', 'Twist Me To The Left', 'Satellites' and 'Because I'm
Awesome', as well as some newer songs such as 'Get Weird' and 'Come And Get It',
from their last album 'Barefoot And Pregnant'.
(check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZnfIrY2tGg )
The Dollyrots have recently completed a successful
pledge campaign for their new EP 'Mommas Gonna Knock You Out' and their tour
DVD. Included in their set is 'Save Me'
from their new EP.
The Dollyrots are pure pop punk and never
fail to impress me. I would highly recommend
seeing these guys live as they always produce a fun and exciting set.
Topping the bill are the founders of pop
punk....... Bowling for soup!
Any Bowling For Soup fan will try to explain
the excitement they feel and the goose bumps they get as they hear the opening
chords of Bowling for Soups play on song, but until you see them live you will
never fully understand the anticipation and thrill of hearing that song.
As the curtain drops a full pub scene is revealed
complete with beer barrels, dart board, onstage bar and walls adorned with
photographs of the bands (which looked to be personal photos rather than posed
especially for the set). On Valentine's
Day the walls of the set were also adorned with hearts, and valentine message boards had been added to
the drum riser.
Starting with the song that launched their
career, Bowling For Soup are greeted with cheers and screams from the crowd as
they kick off the show with 'The Bitch Song'.
Then, without giving the audience time to
get their breath back, they head right
into 'Emily' and lift the roof off the venue.
And that's just the start! More high energy fun ensues with raucous
choruses in the form of crowd pleasers 'Ohio', 'Last Rock Show' and 'Punk Rock
101'. They even throw in the theme tune
to cartoon 'Phineas And Ferb'.
At this point Jaret takes a moment to bring
the energy level back down a notch and is honest and upfront with the audience
as he tells them that it is his fault that they took a hiatus as he had been
experiencing personal problems and that he didn't know where he was headed personally.
Jaret's speech is open and honest and is
a stark reminder that the rock stars we idolise and look up to in today's
society are still human and prone to a
wobble, just like anyone else. Personally
I think it takes guts to hold your hand up and admit something as personal as
that to thousands of people, but it is this kind of honesty that earns Jaret
the respect that he has among his fans.
Following his speech with a beautiful
rendition of 'Turbulence', Jaret lifts
the room again by announcing that he loves nothing more than to play songs with
his best friends every night, but as his friends weren't there we would have to
make do with Bowling For Soup, before launching into 'Friends O' Mine'.
Anyone who has seen BFS before will know
that you don't just get a night of music with these guys but you also get a lot
of onstage banter, which can (and has been known to) go off at a tangent at any moment. Whether it is Jaret's observation that when English
men cheer it sounds as though they are about to go into battle, at which points
he encourages the cheering as he yells 'Storm The Castle' or a nicely improvised
song called 'Swampy Balls' after Chris' statement that he was too sweaty in the
room at Liverpool, there is never a dull moment and no two shows are the same.
Following a recent statement that 'Pop Punk
is dead', the Bowling For Soup boys set out to prove otherwise by playing a medley of songs by prominent pop punk bands
including Blink 182, Greenday, New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World and Good Charlotte
before launching into their cover version of 'Stacy's mom' (originally by Fountains
Of Wayne). All of these covers are met
with raucous applause and crowd participation to which Jaret cheekily comments about how they get a better
response for the songs they didn't write.
It doesn't deter them though as they go on
to perform 'I Don't Know' and 'Almost', before inviting the Dollyrots to join
them on stage for 'Love Ya, Love Ya, Love Ya' from the 'One Big Happy' collaboration
album.
The encore consists of very high energy performances
of 'Shut Up And Smile' and 'Girls All The Bad Guys Want' before they take their
final bow and actually leave the stage. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGRxmYXi4Io)
The guys have spared no expense with this
show. During the show we find that the
beer barrels hide steam and fire cannons (which they couldn't use at all the
shows due to fire regulations, but looked fantastic when we saw them in action
at the Birmingham show).
Throughout the Bowling For Soup set the onstage
bar is populated by Lacey, The Dollyrots, MC Lars and the rest of the stage
crew, leading you thinking that you are actually watching a pub band at your local
with your mates. Even with the smoke/fire cannons, fantastic lighting and couple
of thousand strong crowd each night you still get the feel of an intimate show.
Bowling For Soup have always been a firm
favourite of mine since I first discovered them back in 2002, and no matter how
many times I see them live, I will never get tired of seeing them.
If you love music and a good time, I would
recommend that you see all of the acts on this tour as I can guarantee you will
not be disappointed!
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