 Well
tonight’s a weird one for myself, it’s
the 3rd time in 3 years that I’m going to
see Bowling For Soup, and it’s always at
the same time off year, in the same venue with
the same big crowd, so it’s starting to
wear a little thin, but never the less I’m
still rather excited, as they have a great collection
of songs and have brought some fun support bands
across. The first off which are heading on stage
now.
Patent Pending kick things off with a bang, this
6 piece from Long Island are pop punk/punk rock
they’re fast they’re fun and they’re
chaotic. They don't sound the best but they're
punk so it doesn't matter, they sing and play
with heart and for a reason, they lost a band
member to suicide, a few years ago and it means
allot to them to be playing in-front of people
and making them smile. They do mention this at
one point, to get over to the crowd to talk about
their problems and to band together, which is
a nice thought from a band that on the surface
may just seem like a joke band. They do a cover
off Allstar by Smash Mouth, whilst playing some
fun songs of their own. Singer Joe can’t
seem to stay still and crowd surfs from front
to back and throughout the set, he jumps into
the pit and passes the mic to the crowd who sing
along badly, but who don’t care as they
are sucked in by the energy Patent Pending produce.
They play around some more and Joe tells the crowd
"come talk to us later, and if you steel
a shirt make sure it’s the right size or
you'll look like a dick". All in all their
not the best band in the world but if you’re
feeling down they'll put a smile on your face.
 The
Dollyrots are next up and they’re bringing
their unique brand of bubblegum pop rock punk
to the UK. Incase you didn't know, they're a 3
piece from Los Angeles and we’ll get it
out of the way now; they have a female vocalist,
and amazingly, NO they don’t sound like
Paramore! They sound unusual but great, singer
Kelly Ogden has a high pitched voice, that reminds
me off characters from the rugrats cartoons, but
it works awesome with the style of songs they
play, happy upbeat and fun. They play well, and
they come across great over the PA system, with
fast guitars and pumping bass along with kicking
drum fills to round it all up. They play a few
songs off their new album which including Twist
Me To The Left which sounds like a Vandals song
in rhythm and sounds great, along with the odd
cover including Brand New Key, which they comment
“This gets a bit of confusion when we play
it over here, as you have different lyrics, involving
a combine harvester or something”. They
do really well and keep the energy in the room
high as we wait for the main band.
 Bowling
For Soup take to the stage, and if you don’t
know who they are by now, then I’m not going
to help you, I mean come one, where have you been?
Bowling For Soup, come out to their anthem/theme
“Here Comes Bowling For Soup”, which
allows them to get on to masses of applause and
then jump straight into “My Hometown”
“High School Never Ends” and “Life
After Lisa” which go down a storm. The academy
tonight is lacking, in previous years this gig
is a sell out and you can barely move but tonight,
even though there are lots of people in the venue,
they probably should have played the academy 2
if they wanted a truly buzzing atmosphere as there
is something lacking. The band play well, and
sound as good as they normally do, but weather
its years of playing the same songs, or just the
familiarity of the whole bar on the stage and
 knowing
how the gig will go, just makes it feel less fun
than normal. It may be just myself, as the rest
of the crowd seem to be loving it, but as I said
earlier I have seen them 3 times in 3 years and
they are a band that I always liked the singles,
but never a full album, and I think I’m
a little bored of the same old thing, to new fans
or old fans who haven’t seen them in a while
it will be as much fun as I’ve had in previous
years but for me it’s just a bit lacklustre.
They interact well with the crowd(as always),
by chatting in-between songs to each other and
Patent Pending who are on the stage drinking at
the bar at the back, along with telling everyone
that they are the band you can wave at, and welcome
anyone and everyone to wave at them.
The set is a good one though; they play songs
from the past that they’ve not played in
a while, as well as all the singles(to keep me
happy), including; Punk Rock 101, My Wena, Emily,
Girl All The Bad Guts Want and the great single
from their last album Turbulence. They also through
in plenty of off the cough covers including; Stacey’s
Mum, Hit Me Baby One More Time, Paranoid and I
Wanna Be Sedated. The rap the gig up by playing
The Bitch Song whilst being joined on stage by
The Dollyrots and Patent Pending who help sing
along and end the night on a high.
Overall they do a really good gig, but it was
just not up to previous shows, I guess they’ll
be back around next year in October, but I’d
leave it a year before seeing them as in 2014
it will be their 20th anniversary and that will
definitely blow tonight’s gig out of the
water!
Patent Pending 3/5
The Dollyrots 3.5/5
Bowling For Soup 3.5/5
Review By James Daly
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