Christmas came early as Texan pop punks Bowling For Soup brought their ‘Almost Christmas’ tour to the O2 Academy Bristol, on Wednesday night.
The festive fun kicked off with Dallas power pop prodigies Not Ur Girlfrenz, wowing the crowd by displaying a level of confidence and skill that fellow support act Patent Pending joked ‘ kept them up at night’.
The trio of teens got the crowd going with a slick cover of MCR’s I’m Not Ok (I promise), kept things festive with a punchy punk cover of Rock Around the Christmas Tree, and even had the crowd waving their lighters and mobiles during one of the slower tracks from their debut EP New Kids in America.
Next up were Bowling For Soup’s perennial touring buddies, the always entertaining -Patent Pending,
Bounding onto the stage to Kenny Loggins ‘Danger Zone’ frontman Joe Ragosta launched himself straight into the crowd, where he stayed, for most of the set.
The New York pop punks got the crowd going with fan favourites, The Whisky, the Liar, the thief and their ode to everyone’s favourite plumber – ‘Hey Mario’, or as Ragosta put it – ‘a friend of all of ours that has been chasing the wrong girl for decades.’
Bowling for Soup brought a little festive cheer, kicking things off with ‘Corner store on Christmas’ before launching into ‘Almost’ and then ‘The Bitch Song’ in quick succession.
Something lead singer Jaret Reddick, said would not be happening for the rest of the show, quipping ‘If you came here expecting songs you came to the wrong show.’
The festive fun continued with a traditional light switch on, complete with big red button, which caused a minor blackout, and an impromptu sing-along of Wham’s Last Christmas during a ‘festive themed photo opportunity’.
The festive ‘greatest hits’ set continued with a raucous cover of Frosty the Snowman, before finishing off a spectacular night with fan favourites ‘Girl all the Bad guys Want’ and 1985.
They maybe older, they may be fatter, but Bowling for Soup are still awesome.