[more photos of the gig in this Flickr collection, and this one]
Bowling For Soup are always bound to guarantee a giggle and also to bring good support with them. This year we got Orange (who we missed, sorry) and Suburban Legends who were incredibly good fun. As well as having nice bouncy songs, they were well-choreographed and acted like a headlining act for their short tenure on the stage. Definitely a band to keep your eye out for if they tour sometime.
BFS themselves strolled on stage around 15 minutes after SL finished – a quick set change by anyone’s standards. Sadly, three of the band are recovering from ‘flu which did seem to affect their performance. Don’t get me wrong. They were great fun, but you could just tell it was a harder slog than normal. Credit to them for fighting through the snot and headaches to put on a performance.
Many of the classics were blasted out at rapid speed as well as a decent selection from the current Fishing For Woos. As a bonus, we also got “Stacy’s Mom” which the band recently released as a B-side because people keep thinking they did the original. The between-song banter was as good as ever, though perhaps not as prevalent as last year due to the headaches being suffered by the band. Man flu is a killer.
Despite this, they did pretty damn well though the stage set itself wasn’t as good as the one at the Academy in 2010 where we had nice big video screens. There was an inflatable pig, though. Admittedly it was about 12″ long and thrown up from the crowd, but hey. Beggars can’t be choosers. You’re not going to get a 25′ inflatable sheep into the ABC without crushing half the crowd.
Overall, an enjoyable show but not the best I’ve seen from them. I put this entirely down to evil viruses and not the band. Other acts would have considered cancelling, so full credit to Jared and the guys for going ahead with the show. It was worth the effort!
Also, please excuse the short post. I’m knackered after virtually no sleep from last night after the Volbeat gig…
[…] I missed openers The JB Conspiracy, which is a shame. Main support Orange didn’t get a great reception, though. I saw most of their set and they were OK but nothing brilliant. No faulting the effort they put into the set, and it was a shame – frankly – to hear them being boo’d off stage. I wonder if the same thing happened when they opened for Bowling For Soup recently? […]
[…] caught SL once before, when they were opening for Bowling For Soup at the ABC along the road back in 2011. That time they had a nice big stage to move around on […]