Who remembers when the Foo Fighters played a live version of "Monkey Wrench" with Yayo "Kiss Guy" Sanchez? I was present when the guys from Bowling for Soup met a Yayo of their own on their 30th anniversary tour (that's why the tour shirts have the number #30). I bought the ticket through a holiday sale promotion that Ticketmaster was running. I was planning to attend the show already, but a marked down ticket for the GA section did sweeten the deal.
My first introduction to Bowling for Soup was when "1985" debuted on music television. The Texan pop punk band covered a song by Baltimore's SR-71, and turned Mitch Allan's song into 2004's answer to "Stacy's Mom". Yes, the mid-2000's were a big moment for the "pop punk" genre. Songwriting extraordinaire Adam Schlesinger wrote "Stacy's Mom" about the "MILF" phenomenon in teen fantasies. Taking into account the age of the Fountains of Wayne bandmates, the music video included an homage to a "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" scene involving Phoebe Cates and Judge Reinhold. "1985" leaned in to pop culture references to the point of satire in a song about a mom who's trying to cope with what became of the dreams and pop culture icons she cherished as a teen. Dreams and pop culture icons that she still cherished. Actress Joey House, SR-71 and Bowling for Soup bandmates were all too familiar with every sight gag and lyrical reference. Mitch Allan even appeared in the video.
Watching the video now, satirical references serve as quasi-memorials to George Michael, Eddie Van Halen, Robert Palmer, Jam Master Jay, and Tawny Kitaen In the past 21 years (as we've lost many of those 80's icons), I started listening to more pop punk with the Dollyrots being my gateway band. Thank goodness for Pandora! By making the Dollyrots a hub for a radio programming algorithm, I received a station well stocked with the the Dollyrots, Go Betty Go, Letters to Cleo, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Fountains of Wayne, SR-71, and Bowling for Soup. New artists are mixed with older artists. New songs are mixed with older songs. Hearing the post-COVID Lockdown era "Getting Old Sucks (But Everbody's Doing It)", you see parallels to "1985" in how 50-something year old rock musicians manage their lives while acknowledging that they're in their 50's. I mentioned in my Dar Williams review how evergreen the sentiment is in Bowling for Soup's "High School Never Ends". I applaud how Jared Reddick and his friends still bring an adolescent sense of humor to present day subjects. Mark Twain explained that "Age is a matter of mind over matter".
That led me to a rainy Lansdowne Street thirty minutes before the doors opened at Boston's House of Blues. I was so sure that the show started at 6, and experiences with Saturday MBTA service taught me that you're better 20 minutes early than 20 minutes late. The architecture of Fenway Park's "Monster Seats" provided me with shelter from the rain as I listened to Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers interview the singer JoJo. A friend of mine had turned me on to this podcast, and I try tuning in for Las Culturistas when I can.
In the GA section, I tried getting a better understanding of the different bands on the billing. What their music is like, what people seem to be looking forward to, and what the musicians are like. Seeing "Teenage Dirtbag" on some tee shirts, I was wondering if this term was a reference to some Bowling for Soup song about high school angst. They sung about the teen who changed his interests and appearance to impress "The Girl All the Bad Guys Want".
The first band had the least established space in the music industry. Don't Panic reminded me of my college years. Not so much the pop punk music playing on Vh1. I mean when I'd see friends in Ra Ra Riot and Odom performing on campus and at surrounding venues. My first regular live shows were when I would join friends from the neighboring SUNY ESF school to see my art editor's band in Syracuse's Armory Square. Ra Ra Riot was just taking shape as Odom graduated and broke up. When I see the Ra Ra Riot bassist Matthieu Santos in the news, I still think of sophomore year illustration courses, The other associations with college entertainment was "Saving Silverman", a 2001 comedy where Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn, and Jack Black play a Neil Diamond tribute band. That's not the core plot of the movie, but when you see Don't Panic cover ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" in a music video parodying 80's sitcoms and featuring the lead singer dressed as Jeff Lynn, one may think of Jack Black and his friends dressed as Neil while covering "Cherry".
Wheatus was another band that I had been unfamiliar with. Hearing them perform "Teenage Dirtbag", I recognized them as creators of a Queeraoke staple. I kid you not, someone sings that song just about every week at Jamiaca Plain's Midway Cafe. I just had no idea where the song came from. From what I could gather (at the show, and months later) is that Wheatus can compares to Ra Ra Riot, in a few ways but not too many. Both are create nerdy introspective indie rock. The juxtaposition of a male lead singer and a female led backup vocal section. A big difference between Wheatus and Ra Ra Riot would be in the changes of band lineups. Wheatus has definitively been shaped, and re-shaped, and re-shaped around songwriter/lead guitarist/lead vocalist Brendan B. Brown. The band had two charting singles ("Dirtbag" and 2001's cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect"), and has since included many musicians. I must give Brown's bandmates credit for committing to Wheatus as long as they have. In my post about the Pretenders, I mentioned how bandmates' loyalty and chemistry can be observed in how many years they've figuratively said "I'll Stand By You" for the sake of the art and less so about the commercial success of new studio albums. Bassist Matthew Milligan has been with the band since 2006 (as long as Ra Ra Riot has existed). Statistically, one can appreciate that 4/5 of Wheatus has remained the same since the Obama administration (a measure more in chronology than political environments), and that last member has been onboard since before the COVID 19 lockdown. For Ra Ra Riot, they've never had a song with the chart success of early 2000's Wheatus. But the only instability in band lineups was during the four years when they were trying to stabilize the drum section after the tragic death of John Pike. The other big lineup change was in the cellist position, but 13 years have now passed with an additional 3 studio albums. When looking at Brendan B. Brown's band going through structural shake-ups, I have all the more admiration for what Ra Ra Riot's done over the past 19 years. Mathieu Santos, Wes Miles, Milo Bonacci, and Rebecca Zeller have remained at the band's creative core ever since our days as students at Syracuse.
The headlining band that night (and some people at the show were arguing that "Teenage Dirtbag" made Wheatus the more successful band in the triple billing), was Bowling for Soup! It's in my shaping this blog post that I've found the theme to be in the changing band lineups. The guys of Don't Panic have been together for 16 years. Much of that last article was about the staff changes for Wheatus. Bowling for Soup has been around for 31 years and 11 studio albums. 9 of which with Gary Wiseman behind the drum kit. Rob Felicetti became the band's second official bassist in 2019. It was last summer that marked the latest change in Bowling for Soup's history. The original lead guitarist Chris Burney had to step back from the band for medical reasons. Yes, "Getting Old Sucks". His future as a performer was uncertain at the time of the Boston show. Trying to include Burney in spirit, the guys had a mannequin wearing Burney's band t-shirt and holding a spinner wheel to include a game of chance in the setlist. Frontman Jaret Reddick hadn't officially stepped up into the role of lead guitarist, and saw a song fan in the crowd with a sign. (This is the "Kiss Guy" moment) The sign was a 17 year old's way of asking to play lead guitar on "1989". Jaret asks the kid's name, and introduces "Ned" to the crowd. The teen's parents were yelling up from the GA section. Jaret had misunderstood his "Kiss Guy". Ned's name was actually "Nick". The irony wasn't lost on anyone that "1989" has been out in the world as a song longer than Nick. Nonetheless, Nick was so excited. Like Yayo, he was so elated that Jaret had to calm him down. Reddick joked that Nick was halfway through the song before he could be introduced. Bowling for Soup did great, and their guest guitarist wowed everyone. Making light of the earlier misunderstanding, Nick's stage name was now "Ned". The setlist included a mashup of AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill" and Mötley Crüe's "Kickstart My Heart". This had shown a little more fandom when you think of Jaret dressing as Vince Neil for a segment of the "1985" video. I was hoping for the inclusion of "Hey Mario" or "I Like Normal Chicks", but the concert gave me an opportunity to learn more songs from Bowling for Soup's prolific past. Did you know that they recorded the theme for Phineas & Ferb? I had heard the song before, but hadn't associated the band. Although "Today is Gonna Be a Great Day" was written by someone not a member of Bowling for Soup, this pop cultural touchstone is a creative step towards what the Barenaked Ladies achieved with "The History of Everything". You know, the song known globally as the theme of "the Big Bang Theory" sitcom.
The Don't Panic/Wheatus/Bowling for Soup/Ned concert was a great show. There are many great stories and photos to remember it by. One being a little to raunchy for the blog (and I declined). It's on to the next blog post. I'll see you there!
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