Bowling For Soup Accoustic Live In London: An Evening With Jaret and Erik

Due to this evening's venue (The Islington Academy in Angel) hosting a club night after the show, the show kicked off at the very early time of 6 O'Clock. The time sheet on the wall said that Bowling For Soup were on at 7:15, with support act Bob Schneider on from 6:15 - 7. Given that it seems to be something of a tradition of some people to not come to a gig until at least 2 hours after doors, I wondered just how much of the show those people would miss.

When going to a Bowling For Soup show, it is something of a given that any support acts will have to be cheerful and play upbeat music, if not provide the levels of comedy the BFS guys are known for. Cue Bob Schneider, a solo singer armed only with an electro-accoustic guitar and a keyboard on the side that myself or my fellow BFS fan, my wife, knew nothing about. The early signs were slightly less than encouraging. The opening three numbers were all pretty depressing and had everyone around us wondering "who booked this guy?".

Bob Schneider: Likes singalongs and Tarantulas

Then things started to change. The songs got more upbeat, the audience were asked to get involved, which they did wholeheartedly, and before you know it everyone is singing the chorus to Tarantula right back at Bob, 2 minutes after he taught us the words. The rest of the song continued with cheerful, audience participation numbers, leaving you to realise by the end of the 45 minutes that Bob Schneider throws a total swerveball at the audience, but luckily doesn't leave it too long to show his true colours. Very entertaining after the rocky start.

After a quick changeover, the stage was set, except it was now something more of a living room. Adjustable chairs, a nice table, and two lamps were placed on stage, and before we knew it Jaret and Erik, one half of Bowling For Soup were sat on stage with their accoustic guitars. As anyone who knows much about Bowling For Soup will attest to, seeing them at any kind of show and there will be alot of jokes thrown in. Tonights show, in the smaller more intimate settings and without the formality of a full band show, is more of a comedy stand up show with songs thrown in for good measure. There were many jokes about English accents, including Jaret telling us about being on tour many years ago with a Britiah guy who tried to teach him to say "Shit hot" in a British accent. He couldn't do it then and he can't do it now, but it was damn funny hearing the story and watching him try. There were also many hilarious references to Erik "terrifying the kids", a sin for which he was forgiven near the end of the show.

Jaret and Erik: Shit Hot Indeed

Bowling For Soup never write setlists anyway, but tonight they literally were taking requests. They had a cheat book of all the songs they had planned out in accoustic fashion on a music stand for helping them out, but there was no set list so often when people shouted out songs, they'd get the request played as the next song. Kicking off with the always hugely popular "This is a song about the great state of Texas", Ohio (Come Back To Texas) is one of their most popular hits and loses nothing as an accoustic song, and the crowd filled in most of the missing instrumental parts anyway. My Wena followed, before a story about how Jaret's four year old son had taught his whole pre school class the words to Hooray For Beer, and then Erik informed us Jaret's son would drag a little guitar around the house referring to it as "his wena".

About half way through Jaret needed a toilet break leaving Erik to fly solo for a song, and then Erik disappeared for a comfort break. At this point Jaret asks if we know the Phineas and Ferb (Nickelodeon kids TV show) theme tune. Quite a few people did, including one guy from a group of guys who had been shouting loudly all night (and Erik and Jaret had been referring to them as 63 year old smokers). At this point Jaret invites the guy (named Tom) to get up on stage with him and sing. After attempting to find out what words he knows, they kicked in and he didn't do too bad a job. What was even more hilarious was Erik's return in the middle of the proceedings, as he promptly took his drink and went to watch in the corner. After (eventually) getting rid of Tom, the evening continued.

Tom: famous for about 4 and a half minutes

I must confess, I was having too much fun to take notes of the order of the setlist, but there were some less heard songs in there which was nice such as Starsong, If You Come Back To Me and Trucker Hat alongside normal live BFS favourites High School Never Ends, 1985 and Almost (for which the crowd was congratulated on its "doo doo doo"'ing several times by Jaret and Erik). One excited lady fan of the boys was so excited she threw her bra onstage, which brought Jaret and Erik much amusement as they analysed the fact that it could be padded out more "what do you do, stuff tissue in here?" and it promptly adorned the stage for the rest of the show.

Jaret and Erik: Sponsored by Wonderbra?

3 kids in front of us held up a sign that said "Play The Bitch Fish Song", prompting a long discussion about why The Bitch Song became The Fish Song, at which point people started shouting for The C**t Song (which opened the excellent Bowling For Soup show at The Electric Ballroom back in July 2008), before the guys launched into the song with normal lyrics. Hooray for beer then followed up before Jaret thanked us all for coming "we've been together 16 years, and I think we would have only lasted about 7 years if it wasnt for your fantastic country". Tom also got another mention, and was referred to as a Douchebag (which Jaret later took back, telling everyone he loved all of us, even Tom). He also mentioned they would be looking to play some festivals in June, and confirmed that BFS would return for a full headlining tour in October (something mentioned at the end of the last tour at The Roundhouse). Jaret then launched into the unmistakable main riff from Girl All The Bad Guys Want (which still sounds damn good on an accoustic guitar). The nights biggest singalong then followed, especially the traditional "moped echo". This brought the main portion of the evening to a close, but the cheers were loud and it was not long before the boys were back on stage with fresh beverages in hand.

Pre-Encore Top Up

They kicked back in with a rendition of Life After Lisa, and brought the evening to a close with the fantastic When We Die. After a very loud Islington Academy gave Jaret and Erik one last very loud sendoff, a quick look at the watch showed it was 9.50. To be on stage for over 2 1/2 hours as 2 guys with a pair of accoustic guitars is a very impressive achievement to make an understatement, yet they never looked tired and seemed to genuinely enjoy the whole thing. I have seen countless acts play for less than half the time they did on headline shows with a full band, pyro and all the trimmings, but when you see Bowling For Soup, you are always guaranteed fantastic value for your money and this just took it to a new level. Before the show I wasn't quite sure how well a BFS accoustic tour would work. After that I'd almost rather Jaret and Erik left Chris and Gary at home again for their return trip in October.