Bowling For Soup / The Dollyrots / Patent Pending

Bowling For Soup are a creature of habit. It seems that every October, without fail, the group come here to the UK for a tour. In fact they have said so themselves in the past that as long as fans keep attending, they will keep coming. And with that being said, here we are tonight at the UEA LCR in Norwich for their 2012 tour.



Every year the band brings their friends with them on tour and supporting this year are Patent Pending and The Dollyrots. Coming on stage to the theme from 'The Simpson's', are New York five-piece Patent Pending. They proceed to entertain the youthful crowd with an energetic set of generic pop-punk.

There is a certain charm about these men and their music that helps the crowd warm to them despite the unoriginality of their style of music. Singer Joe Ragosta, who likens Norwich to a "northern sandwich", entertains us with his best Justin Bieber dance moves throughout 'Anti-Everything' and keeps the audience interactive throughout. The musical highlight of the short set comes through a cover of The Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way'.



The Dollyrots are already familiar to the Bowling For Soup crowd as they have previously supported them, as they reference onstage, multiple times. The three-piece keep the happy theme going with their brand of cheery pop-punk. The best moment of their set comes when singer Kelly Ogden leads us through a rendition of 'Brand New Key'.

Bowling For Soup are Jaret Reddick, Chris Burney, Erik Chandler and Gary Wiseman. Hailing from Denton, Texas, the group formed in 1994. Since this time they have shown incredible endurance. This is in no small part down to the loyal fan base they have built up and the fun shows that they put on. They are a band after all that despite a steady conveyor belt of standout pop-punk singles, have never reached that top level in terms of stature.



Their longevity has been helped greatly by their entertaining live shows. Tonight's tour is billed as the 'One Big Happy' tour and previous tour titles such as the 'Get Happy Tour', are titled this because they do exactly as they say on the tin - make you happy. Bowling For Soup gigs are always fun and tonight is no different; be it the witty lyrics or the comical onstage banter - there is always something to smile about, they are after all "the band that you can wave to."

As for their set tonight, all the usual suspects are in. Singles and set staples such as 'High School Never Ends', 'Punk Rock 101', 'Almost' and '1985' have the crowd singing along with every word. The crowd is in high spirits tonight and dance and mosh along throughout a set that also features older tracks 'Life After Lisa' and 'Emily'.

One song to receive an airing tonight is new song 'Let's Go To The Pub', which is fitting because they have a bar set up on the side of the stage. A bar that they frequent constantly tonight, even mid-song, getting Patent Pending to finish 'Ohio (Come Back To Texas)' for them whilst they drink. Tonight also sees the return of the musically enhanced Bowling For Soup photo opportunity.

For all the fun and games of a Bowling For Soup show, you have to remember that they have produced some fine songs along the way. Introduced by the band as the greatest song ever, no song demonstrates this more than their classic 'Girl All The Bad Guys Want'.



For our encore tonight we are treated to a rousing rendition of Britney Spears' 'Baby One More Time', which creates the evening's largest mosh pit. Reddick then takes time to answer a number of audience questions including "where do babies comes from?" and "what colour are tennis balls". With his tour manager demanding he wrap it up, Reddick decides to answer one last question.

He may regret this however as that question turns out to be "can you come and sing the last song from in the crowd?" But with his manager now literally pulling his hair out Reddick and The Dollyrots front woman Ogden take up the offer and make their way out into the crowd for 'The Bitch Song'.

This was an entertaining end to an enjoyable evening. Pop-punk is not the most original music, as evidenced by Bowling For Soup playing a cover of Fountains Of Wayne's 'Stacy's Mom' because people think it's a Bowling For Soup song. It may not be original or ground breaking but it's definitely fun and as long as Bowling For Soup keep coming back, then I'll keep going to their shows.

FUTURE GIGS