Orange were not at all what I expected,
I was under the impression the band were going
to put on quite an interesting feel good show
but instead what I witnessed was poor to say the
least. I know it’s not looks that make a
show but the aesthetic of it was speaking louder
than words; lead vocalist Joe Dexter could not
possibly look more like My Chemical Romance vocalist
Gerard Way unless he literally had his face transplanted,
he was dressed the same, had the same colour hair
and his vocals (although his were flat most of
the time) had the same whiney style associated
with MCR. Not only that but the set was full of
gimmicks; don’t get me wrong I’m normally
a sucker for that and really enjoy them but what
these guys were doing was just plain cringe worthy.
Silly hats, ridiculously oversized glasses and
a blend of stale pop punk, whilst some of the
audience may be young they aren’t 4 years
old. Some people genuinely seemed to enjoy it
but I was thoroughly disappointed.
 Suburban Legends are the only band on tonight’s
bill for which I had no expectations of; I had
no idea what style of music they play, no idea
what they looked like and I was absolutely blown
away. They may have had choreographed dance moves
which I heard bitchy little comments about from
people wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts next to me
but in my opinion that really gave them an edge
alongside all the other theatrics. Their sound
is a blend of ska and pop punk if you can imagine
the combination; they have a trumpet and a trombone
player who are the main culprits alongside lead
vocalist Vincent Walker who bring make it really
theatrical with the dancing and general antics.
Some of the covers they do caught me completely
off guard and were just plain awesome; Lion King’s
“I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”,
Youtube Sensation “Bed Intruder Song”
and then “We are the Champions” by
Queen which all go down a storm. Each member has
their own persona in the band; Guitarist Brian
Klemm embraces the hard rock attitude, bassist
Brad Polidori has got this whole funk thing going
on, Vincent Walker with his brass accomplices
are the funny guys whilst the drummer gets his
ska on. Hands down, these guys have been one of
the most entertaining bands I have ever seen in
my life, any time the band returns I will definitely
be there I guarantee it.
 Bowling for Soup have stated that the aim of
these UK shows is to play all of the songs they
have released as singles in their career. It is
no secret that the band’s live shows are
extremely unpredictable and ridiculously hilarious;
tonight is far from an exception although they
didn’t stick inflatable cocks in inflatable
sheep. They’ve had a bar built and it has
been placed on stage with some very lucky fans
having the privilege of drinking there for the
duration of the show, not only fans but the support
bands and crew randomly turn up at this bar and
spark a lot of humorous moments. The main event
to mention however is that vocalist Jaret Reddick
has allowed a fan to propose to his girlfriend
onstage with her having no idea what was going
on, it was a really beautiful moment which of
course was a 5 minute point of interest for the
band to spout humour about encouraging Chris to
propose to a member of the audience, naked. That
is the essence of Bowling for Soup, an hour and
a half of immature jokes about vagina’s
and ball’s with some really lively punk
rock music to accompany it, whether your 14 or
34 it’s good to have a night where age is
irrelevant and you can feel like you’re
young for a couple hours. Amazing set filled with
songs like “Punk Rock 101”, “Almost”,
“High School Never Ends”, “Ohio
(Come Back to Texas)” along with a couple
of covers;“Summer of ‘69” by
Bryan Adams, “Staceys Mom” by Fountains
of Wayne and of course their most famous cover
“1985” by SR-71. every song is amazing,
really tight and well performed and once they
left the stage my favourite moment from the show
happened during their encore; Jaret returned saying
“Chris just asked if we should come out
and play 1 more song, I said that I didn’t
think we had any more singles left to play, he
just looked at me and said I think you forgot
about a pretty big one, it goes a little something
like this” and there it was, the best song
of the night “ Girl All The Bad Guys Want”,
I felt like I was 16 all over again I haven’t
smiled like that in a long time.
Orange – 2/5
Suburban Legends – 5/5
Bowling For Soup – 5/5
Review By James Webb
Photos By James Daly |
