Gig Review: Bowling For Soup / Lit / The Dollyrots – O2 Academy, Glasgow (13th April 2022)

I think this is the first time I’ve ever started drafting a review to a gig, at home, while the gig I was at is still running its course. I have my reasons! Well, one nine-year-old one… Like the Sabaton / Alestorm show at Glasgow Barrowlands back in 2016, this was a family first. My 9 year old daughter’s first proper live show, and to see one of her favourite bands. Parents will know the minefield of trying to get kids into gigs – and often keeping them there as the hour grows late!

So before I get onto the bands, I want to throw out huge thanks to a few people. Jamie at Rage PR who worked his arse off to help ensure we could get Niamh in with me. Dave and Daniel, the tour manager and his deputy, who ensured the venue were OK with things. The staff at the venue who were assisting people like ourselves and those with various disabilities to reserved spaces, and then checking on us every now and again to ensure we were fine. And also to the crowd we stood near and walked through who were extra-cautious when they noticed I was dragging / being dragged by a small girl! Oh, and Phill Jupitus for the best selfie ever. Thanks, one and all!

So, anyway. The bands. That’s what you lot are all here for, isn’t it?

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BFS Family favourites The Dollyrots were up first and were their usually delightful selves. Their 8-song set was brief, bouncy and full of preppy pop-punkiness. The hall was filling gradually as they played, and by the time they got to “I Know How To Party” they were getting a very good reaction from a pretty full dance floor. The lady in front of us was definitely into it, singing every word to the likes of “Everything” and “City of Angels”.

A little technical hitch before “Brand New Key” was handled professionally (with Kelly and Luis blaming each other!) and didn’t eat into their time too much, and they rounded things up with “Because I’m Awesome”. And they were. Thank you for being my daughter’s first ever live band!

Lit are a band I think I’ve somehow managed to miss despite them being pretty big and touring fairly regularly. They certainly know their stuff, exploding on to the stage in a flurry of activity which never ended. Some great audience interaction throughout, and a couple of new songs chucked in amongst the classics. Again, a short set – this time nine songs – but enough to stamp their authority on the stage for their forty minutes.

I’m no authority on Lit and confess I didn’t recognise most of the songs (other than the obvious finisher “My Own Worst Enemy”), but of the ones they played I really liked those that they mentioned were newer. With it being five years since their last album, this bodes well for whatever they’ll release next. Tastes Like Gold is out on June 17th, I just found out! Consider me very interested indeed.

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The only band of the night with their own theme song, Bowling For Soup ambled onto the stage at around 9:20 as if they owned the place. Which they damn well did. Rob looks a little more punk than pop-punk these days with that hairstyle, while the other band members are their usual selves. Jaret with far too much hair (and a two-tone dye job), Chris rocking a quality Exodus t-shirt, and Gary managing to pass himself off as comparably normal which is no mean feat for a drummer.

Hearing my littlest singing “Bowling For Soup… Hey!” absolutely warmed heart-cockles I thought had iced over, and the inner-squooshies continued as she waved her arms during “Ohio” and threw up her rock hands to “Punk Rock 101”. To some extent, I’m kind of glad she was tired as I didn’t have to fend off any questions about Jaret’s “man masturbating on the airplane” story, though she was recording a lot of the show so this may come back to haunt me.

A look at setlist.fm shows that we left pretty much at the halfway point, but still got to hear what was more or less a “greatest hits plus one new song” (“Brad Pitt”), as well as the photo break, comedy competition and the aforementioned “Brad Pitt” being turned into a singalong for the first time. Even with a new album on the way, this is definitely a “we’ve not been here for ages, here’s the shit you really want to hear” tour.

In fact, Act II was pretty much the same! All classics, plus one new song that’s not that new any more (“Alexa Bliss”). In other words, more stuff to sing along and go hoarse to.

Leaving the gig early, I felt genuinely a little bit ill. Gutted. But at the same time elated. I missed BFS a couple of tours back due to illness, and missing half this show I remembered why I was so annoyed at the time. It’s because they’re so much bloody fun. However, a few little words made up for it: “Dad? Thanks for taking me. I really enjoyed it”.

So did I, kid. So did I. They crammed more laughs and catchy singalong numbers into the half-set we saw than any comparable band could ever wish for. There are, amazingly, tickets left for most of the upcoming dates on the tour. Of course I’m going to tell you to go and grab one. We have two for London (April 23rd) available if you’re lucky enough!

The gig world is slowly awakening after a couple of years in forced hibernation, and if every band can get the ball rolling like BFS (and Lit and The Dollyrots) then even if everything else on this planet is going to shit right now, we still have the music.

Bowling For Soup: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | youtube

Lit: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | youtube | musicglue

The Dollyrots: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube | myspace | bandcamp | spotify | myshopify