By Jonny Bakes
If there was a show that could accurately depict my teenage music tastes, then the team-up between Bowling for Soup and Less than Jake comes pretty close. So naturally I leapt at the chance to see them on their own tour together after having a great time seeing them both at Slam Dunk Festival last year (and choosing to give them a miss at When We Were Young festival after having secured tickets for this show already). The Manchester date of this tour was so popular that it sold out within a number of days resulting in a second date being added at the start of the tour, but I was fortunate enough to have been quick off the mark (okay, my girlfriend was the one on the ball) and secured tickets for a Saturday night of ska and pop punk: what could be better?
After a DJ set from former Kerrang! Radio presenter Matt Stocks, it was time to get stuck into some live music! Opening proceedings was a band who were pretty new to me, in fact I think I’ve only briefly heard them through listening to other bands, was the alternative country act, Vandoliers.
Now my first impression was that the label of “alt-country” is a bit misleading. I would argue that Vandoliers are more of a folk punk band, but the folk elements they intertwine into the music is steeped in Texan tradition. With an incredibly enthusiastic frontman (Joshua “Hollywood” Fleming) on the acoustic guitar bouncing around the stage, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Frank Turner. Considering the amount of energy coming from the stage, I was surprised that the bloke in front of me was putting more focus on swiping through Tinder than he was watching Vandoliers but each to their own I guess!
The addition of the trumpets gave a bit of a mariachi feel to the music, so I guess you could call it a bit of Tex-Mex, and this added enough spice to get the crowd decently warmed up for the main event. The chosen song to end the set was perfect as it is already a well established banger – The Proclaimers’ hit ‘500 miles’ was given a punky twist to whip the whole crowd up into a frenzy much to my own enjoyment (although I’m sure my voice suffered as a result).
Less Than Jake wasted no time in getting into the full swing of things by launching into the opening track from 1998’s ‘Hello Rockview’, ‘Last One Out Of Liberty City’ and then rattling off the subsequent tracks to end up with one of my personal favourites ‘All My Best Friends Are Metalheads’. I was pretty convinced we were being treated to another full playthrough of the album, like we had at Slam Dunk last year, but after nailing the big hit, it was time to take things left field and explore the wider back catalogue – fantastic!
The Manchester crowd were loving every minute of this set, with a whole lot of movement going on which isn’t bad for a crowd that has certainly aged a bit since Less Than Jake started coming over here in the late 90s! After a rousing rendition of ‘Plastic Cup Politics’ we delved really deep into the back catalogue to pull out some genuine old shit from ‘Losing Streak’ with the opening track ‘Automatic’ provoking a strong reaction from the crowd.
But my favourite moment from the set, and the point in which I lost all sense of self control, was finally getting to hear my favourite song ‘Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts’ which was made even better by the collection of assorted clips from the Johnny Quest cartoon being played on the big screen. I suspect I may be in the minority of people who remember the show, but it topped things off perfectly for me!
Having such a high in the middle of the set meant that Less Than Jake had a challenge to maintain this momentum through the back end of the set, but you better believe they managed it. ‘History Of A Boring Town’ was dedicated to all those in the crowd who grew up in a boring little town which, to my surprise, seemed to be a large number of the population. This meant that it had an even bigger impact than I expected with everyone absolutely belting it out – I wonder how many of them had actually managed to make it out their town? Unfortunately the set couldn’t last all night, so the band masterfully brought us into a lull with the emotive ‘Rest Of My Life’ bringing a tear to the eyes of many before ending things on a real high with the ever popular ‘Gainesville Rock City’ leaving Bowling for Soup with a really difficult act to follow!
Bowling for Soup kept us in suspense for a while with a five-minute timer and Motley Crue’s ‘Kickstart My Heart’ to lead into their arrival on stage. Immediately I was drawn to the fact that Erik was missing from the lineup before remembering that he had parted ways with the band a long time ago and I’d just forgotten to move with the times! In his place on bass is Rob Felicetti who is famous for being the former Ataris drummer who had the kit thrown at him by Kris Roe and stands out as the youngest member of the band by a fair way!
The band knew that ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ is the album that really made it big in the ÜK so it’s only natural to start with a track from that album, so we kicked things off with ‘Emily’. What I found interesting here is that it seemed like a completely different part of the crowd started going nuts, when I thought there would be a strong crossover between the LTJ and BFS fanbases. I was one of those going nuts for BFS though and, as I quickly realized, I knew the words to every song to sing along. This included the tongue in cheek number ‘My Wena’ that immediately followed and set the scene for a set full of silliness, jokes and bits. ‘Ohio (Come Back to Texas)’ encouraged another crowd sing-along and even saw Vandoliers take to the stage to finish off hte song while the band took a brief beer break at the little shanty bar on the stage. A bar that had a constant group of, I assume, fans and friends who were enjoying an up close and personal view of the whole set which is something I would have loved to do but alas, it was a place with the peasants for me!
This was followed by more hits from ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ like ‘Life After Lisa’ (which isn’t that bad by the way) and ‘The Last Rock Show’ before we hit another big one from the back catalogue in the form of ‘Punk Rock 101’ for which a brief pause was extended into a whole bit. Apparently Sam Totman of DragonForce gave them a hard time for not finishing the song the night before so Manchester got to hear the end of ‘Punk Rock 101’ twice!
The hits just kept on coming with ‘High School Never Ends’ getting everyone singing along to a point where I’m pretty sure we were drowning out Jaret which gave him a little reprieve. Things took a more serious turn after this with Jaret sharing some of his own mental health struggles before leading into ‘Turbulence’ which clearly struck a chord with some of those around me in what was a sharp deviation from the sheer silliness of the rest of the set but drawing attention to a worthy cause that always deserves attention.
After ‘Almost’, which is perhaps one of my favourite songs (as a man who has also almost done a whole bunch of shit) Bowling For Soup attempted their signed guitar giveaway which has evidently been less successful on the previous nights of the tour where the drawn winners had disappeared, but tonight the lucky guy was actually present and paying attention! So Aaron bagged himself a shiny signed guitar and I’m in now way jealous whatsoever…
The set rounded off with back to back big hitters in ‘The Bitch Song’ and ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ and I’m glad to see the band dispensed with usual trope of leaving the stage for the encore, instead they simply say down on the stage for a bit to be catch their breath before embracing the encore! I was a bit worried that they’d spent so much time on bits and skits that they would be cut off before ‘1985’ but someone at the venue must have been feeling generous because we squeezed it in there too!
Well it’s pretty safe to say that I had a great time watching two of my favourite bands who may have aged a little bit (as, I must begrudgingly admit, have I) but can still put on a great show. Less than Jake in particular must have sold their souls or something because they don’t play like ‘Hello Rockview’ is over 25 years old! The rest of the tour is pretty well sold out, unsurprisingly, but there’s still the odd ticket coming up for resale so if you’ve managed to snooze on this mega nostalgia tour make sure you keep an eye out and get to a venue near you as this is something not to be missed!
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.