Fox Reviews Rock

For the second week in a row, we are back at the Motorpoint Arena, this time we are early as we decided to treat ourselves and buy the VIP package for Bowling For Soup!

This included early access to some merchandise, an acoustic set from Bowling For Soup, a photo, a signed poster and a VIP lanyard, we were also lucky enough to win 1 of 5 signed photos!

This tour was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, which wasn’t actually released in the UK, but that didn’t stop us from stealing listening to it anyway!

We headed into the arena at 5.30pm, where general admission were already queuing up outside, we got our tickets scanned and then given a wristband for the VIP package, this all felt a little unorganised as some people’s tickets were not scanning and the staff didn’t seem to know what tickets they needed to scan (VIP and admission were two separate tickets)

Once inside we were able to check out one of the Merchandise stalls, we found that this stall didn’t have all the merchandise on offer and just a small selection so we didn’t buy anything, we did try and come back to the main merchandise stand after the VIP experience but the arena was very crowded with GA at that point so we gave up and went back into the standing area before everyone else was let in.

All the VIP crowd gathered at the stage where Bowling For Soup then played 3 acoustic songs including “Belgium” and in their true fashion there were some jokes thrown around, after this we all queued up to have photos with the band. While in the queue John was speaking to random people in the queue for their social media where he was asking them questions giving them a chance to win a signed photo, St. Jimmy’s when we were young t-shirt  caught his eye and we won ourselves a photo!

We then had our photo with bowling for soup, and showed them a ticket from 18 years ago to the day when St Jimmy saw them for the first time, Jaret told us to take a photo and tag him in it, he then shared our photo on Instagram and they even mentioned this during the show!

Although we were in the arena a lot earlier compared to Papa Roach the week before, the night seemed to be going quite quickly, we think that the pre show DJ, Jon Mahon, helped with this a lot, although he was just playing music, he had a great attitude and was full of energy, it was great to hear that he is also joining Bowling For Soup, Wheatus, and Punk Rock Factory at Wembley Arena!

The first band of the night was Magnolia Park who opened with one of their biggest songs ‘Misfits’, we thought it was a bold choice for them to open up with this song, but they absolutely smashed it, there was so much energy coming from the crowd and they definitely kept the energy up!

Much to our delight, they played I2I from Disney’s Goofy Movie that is on the Disney album A Whole New Sound! Throughout their set the crowd was enthusiastic and energetic with many mosh pits and crowd surfers, making them the first band ever open up for Bowling For Soup to have mosh pits!

They played 8 songs in total and we could tell that they’ve improved a lot since we last saw them at When We Were Young Festival 2023.

A short break between bands and Jon Mahon was back on stage playing even more music, we really enjoyed that the entertainment never stopped at this gig as usually there’s a long lull between sets.

Wheatus opened up with a cover of the Darkness ‘Growing On Me’ which was a nice surprise, and was very well executed, they followed this with ‘A little Respect’ and ‘Fourteen’ where Brendon explained the lyrics behind the song a little. During their fourth song of the night ‘Leroy’, Brendon noticed a fan was in trouble so he stopped the song halfway through so security could go and help, after everything was okay, they finished playing the song!

During their 8 song set they made a few jokes and had some crowd interaction, not as much as when we have seen them previously, but we always say they are an intimate venue band, they definitely perform better in smaller venues with more banter from the crowd. Wheatus finished with their biggest hit ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ ending their set with a loud sing along from the whole audience!

Brendon gave a shout out to ALT BLK ERA who were on the stage as they recently did a collaboration together for ‘My Drummers Girlfriend’, you can read about ALT BLK ERA’s album launch here.

Before Bowling For Soup came on stage we had Jon Mahon back playing more music and keeping the crowd hyped. It felt like a quick change over due to this and we very much appreciated it!

When Bowling For Soup first arrived on stage they were telling us that this was the second largest venue in the UK they had played at, and that we should all buy tickets to go see them, Wheatus, and Punk Rock Factory when they play at Wembley later on in the year. They also told the crowd that it was 18 years to the day that they had played a gig at Rock City, Nottingham, a fact that we had told them just a few hours before, showing them St. Jimmy’s ticket stub from that gig!

This tour was for the 20th anniversary of A Hangover You Don’t Deserve album, so they played all the songs in order from the album, making jokes and comments throughout the set. Starting off with ‘Almost’ followed by ‘Trucker Hat’ and ‘1985, they mentioned that it was the earliest we would ever hear ‘1985’ ever, due to it usually being one of their encore songs.

As the show went on, we quickly remembered how much we loved the songs on the album, bringing back a real nostalgia feel, especially with “Ohio (Come Back to Texas)” & “My Hometown”. We always enjoy going to see a band and remembering songs that we have forgotten.

Mid way during the set where most bands play slower songs or have a chat with the audience, Bowling For Soup got a crowd member to join them on stage for a game, her name was Jordan and her partner had bought her tickets for that show for her birthday that was that day! They had a spinning wheel with different songs (that were not on the album) and different merchandise items she could win, but they did mention that there were only t-shirts left so she got one of those! Jordan span the wheel but it didn’t land on the song she wanted, so Jaret spun the wheel a little further to *pick any song* which Jordan chose ‘Life after Lisa’ that she got to enjoy on stage at the bar!

After playing the last 4 songs and finishing the album the band then sat at the bar and had a drink while we all shouted for an encore! Bowling for soup then picked up their instruments once more to continue the night, and make a joke about most bands walking off the stage, but they didn’t want to go down and back up the stairs for that, so they didn’t.

Their encore was 3 songs long and ended the night perfectly, with classics ‘High School Never Ends’ & ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Wants’ bringing the fantastic show to an end. We definitely think this was our favourite show at the Motorpoint Arena for a very long time!

St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️

All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.