Yeah you read that right…
Bowling for Soup, a band I’ve enjoyed listening to for years was a massive disappointment for me last year. Here’s why…
My best musical year…
2017 was a big year for me musically. I got the chance to see some of the bands I’ve always wanted to see live. Sum 41, Blink 182, Goldfinger and the Ataris.
You can imagine how pumped up I was last year with excitement to finally see these acts! Sum 41 did not disappoint, they played a lot of the tracks from their latest album; 13 Voices, which is a brilliant album, mixed in with some of their well known tracks from past albums. The atmosphere was electric and the band were very entertaining to watch, definately a great beginning to the year!
Slam Dunk festival Leeds 2017
Since it was my 30th birthday last year, my friends decided to book me tickets to the one day festival in Leeds. We decided to stay at the Fireball stage because a lot of the bands playing on that
stage were our favourites. Reel Big Fish, Gold Finger, Zebrahead, Less than Jake, The Ataris. The Mad caddies were one of the bands playing on that stage, I’d never really listened to them before but I really enjoyed their set. It was my first time seeing The Atairs and Goldfinger live but it was worth the wait. They interacted well with the crowd and kept the momentum going.
Reel Big Fish, ,Zebrahead and Less Than Jake I’ve seen and enjoyed before on a few occasions and they didn’t disappoint. The atmosphere was really electric and there were a few funny and awesome things happening in the crowd. Zebrahead threw an inflatable dingy into the crowd and one of their set pieces (This time a guy dressed up as a beer bottle) surfed the crowd in it. From out of no where a member of the crowd jumped in and surfed it with him while people threw beer to him. I can’t remember which, but one of the bands managed to get a mosh pit going with people sat on anothers shoulders. Amazingly no one was hurt but I thought it was pretty amazing to watch.
Bowling for Soup…
So we come to the crux of this tale of disappointment….
The band head lining this stage was as you’ve probably guessed from the title was Bowling for Soup. I was pretty hyped to see these guys live for the first time, having enjoyed their music in the past. Despite how sore my feet were by this point I was pretty pumped by all the previous performances by the other bands on this stage.
Bowling for Soup came on and all seemed to be going well. They played their opening track and we all got into the atmosphere. Once they’d finished they started talking and joking but that’s where the the gig for me started to go south. They just weren’t funny, which was a complete disappointment because that’s one thing I’ve always enjoyed about their music. At one point they even stopped during a song, just to try and say something funny to the crowd, something that really messed up the flow.
At one point someone even shouted ‘get on with it’ but was met with what I can only describe personally as arrogance. They told him that this was their set and this was how they did things. I think that turned a lot of people off especially me, it’s really jarring when someone stops a song half way through. Try and add humour to your sets by all means, just don’t ruin the flow by stopping halfway through a song.
It’s not all doom and gloom…
To add some positivity to this final bit of this tale, they weren’t all bad. When they were playing songs they were great and the atmosphere was great when they played. Finding out that they performed the title song to ‘Phineas and Ferb’ my favourite cartoon on Disney XD was a great surprise and earned me some funny looks from my friends when I sang it nearly word perfectly.
All in all I had a great time but it was marred by the headlining band and I’ve never really been able to listen to them since.
What was your biggest musical disappointment of 2017? Did you enjoy Bowling for Soup’s headlining set and I’m just butt hurt at them not being as amazing as I’d hoped? Were you there at the fireball stage last year? Let me know in the comments.