For this review, we traveled down to Wembley Arena in London for Bowling For Soups biggest headline show, along with Wheatus, Punk Rock Factory & DJ Jon Mahon.
We drove down to Watford and got the train into the centre of London to wander around the Christmas markets before the show, once we got into the Wembley Area, we got food in the Box park which was full of people going the show, there was a massive variety of different food vendors, with good music and good vibes.
We got ourselves to the arena where staff were a bit disorganised with not having the wrist bands ready but once they had them, we got in smoothly and made our way to the merchandise stall, unfortunately the queue was very big and decided to go back later and grab some drinks.
When we got to arena we were entertained by DJ John Mahon who we last saw in Nottingham. He is very fun and energetic and got the vibes completely right with his music choice and mixes, he performed his own song ‘You Got This’ which the crowd loved and joined in with.
First of the night was Punk Rock Factory who couldn’t believe they were playing at Wembley Arena and all took it in turns to shout “Hello Wembley” to get a big cheer from the crowd each time.
They opened up with their punk rock versions ‘How Far I’ll Go’, ‘Friend Like Me’ & ‘Mama Mia’s providing a good mixture that anyone can enjoy, which continued with Disney’s ‘Under the Sea’ & the 90s classic ‘Cest La Vie’.
They recently released their newest album ‘The Fright Before Christmas’ Which contained their punk rock twist on classic Halloween and Christmas songs, but this time there was a special song, PRF’s first original song ‘Slay the Bells’ which went down really well with the crowd and we’d imagine it would be a proud moment for the band.
PRF continued to entertain with the much loved ‘SpongeBob SquarePants Theme Song’ and ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ where we got surprised with the power rangers coming out on stage doing poses which our inner child loved.
They finished the set with ‘Life is a Highway’, ‘Let It Go’ and the Christmas classic ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ which was a perfect end to their set.
This is the 7th time we’ve seen Punk Rock Factory and we never get tired of their shows as they are one of the most fun and entertaining bands out there and cant wait to see them at Rock City again in February.
They are touring next year and they announced they are performing their biggest headline show in London next October, we recommend going to see these live if you get the chance, you won’t be disappointed.
If you would like to know more you can check out our past reviews here:
During the break we decided to go back to the merchandise stand where the queue was a lost shorter and luckily got the second to last Bowling For Soup signed vinyl and a Wheatus signed vinyl for our collection, we grabbed a drink and got back to arena in perfect time to witness Wheatus perform the first song of their set ‘Leroy’
Wheatus have recently been touring to celebrate their 25th anniversary and were joined by their original Mulli-instrumentalist Phillip A Jiminez for the first time in 22 years, playing the harmonica amongst other instruments throughout the set.
Wheatus performed their cover of ‘A Little Respect’ with an outro of The Temptations ‘My Girl’, this followed with songs ‘Valentine’ & ‘Fourteen’ where they bought out a guest saxophonist for the latter.
They continued to entertain us with Hump’Em N’ Dump’Em, ‘Wannabe Gangster’, ‘Lemonade’ and one of our favourites ‘Hey, Mr. Brown’s before finished their set with their usual massive hit ‘Teenage Dirtbag’. Half way through their performance of ‘Teenage Dirtbag’, Jaret of Bowling For Soup came on stage to a massive cheer to bring out Brandens iconic hat and put it on his head before he continued to do the high pitch part of the song. For the finale of the song, the band ran around like crazy swapping instruments and making a lot of noise which was fun to watch.
Now it was time for Bowling For Soup which started with a video and song intro and the stage had two stands filled with lucky people to enjoy the show from, the band came out to a massive cheer and opened up with the classics ‘The Bitch Song’ & ‘High School Never Ends’ which got the arena rocking.
Jaret mentioned they have been together for 31 years then played the appropriate ‘Getting Old Sucks (But Everybody’s Doing It), followed by ‘Almost’ and a song they have never played in the UK before ‘I Dont’ Wish You Were Dead Anymore’ which was a song about his ex wife.
Jaret spoke about the band being dropped by their record label in 2009 and spoke about mental health. He mentioned that he got depression and anxiety 14 years ago, which he got help for and said that “He’s the happiest person in the world so if he can get it, anyone can”. We know from previous shows that Jaret likes to talk about mental health, like many other artists and we think it’s great that these musicians show that they are human and want to spread awareness of these conditions.
BFS continued to entertain with their jokes and their hits like ‘Punk Rock 101’ where in-between this song they did a photo shoot on stage, unfortunately we missed a bit of this as it was really hot in the arena and Rex started to feel ill so we went out to cool down and got some water from the free water fountain. We noticed there were plenty of other people out too and a young lad looked completely white and was getting held up by two people, we think the arena should control the temperature better.
Once we felt better we went back in the arena to enjoy the show but stayed further back and to the side to watch the rest of the set. They played ‘Emily’ and ‘Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day’ (Phineas and Ferb theme song) this was followed by Brandon from Wheatus coming onto stage to take his famous hat off to show that he shaved his hair for charity, which we think is a fantastic idea to do for a show.
BFS finished their set with their hit ‘1985’ which everyone sang a long to before their encore. When they came back on stage they announced the winner of the signed guitar which Dean and Lucy won so they got to go on stage to collect their prize in front of everyone which would create memories of a lifetime for them.
Jaret mentioned that they have a new album coming out in February which we can’t wait to get our hands on. They finished by playing a newer song ‘Holding On to That Hate’ and the classic ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’ which capped off an amazing show from start to finish.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
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