It would be easy to take one look at Forever The Sickest Kids and immediately dismiss them as style over substance.
They look like first rate skater kids who should be hanging out at a skate park in the US, not rocking out on the stage of the O2 Academy.
Having said that a few songs into the set and you would be forgiven for thinking that Forever The Sickest Kids were the headline band.
They somehow managed to get the whole of the Academy bouncing with their pop punk tunes and their six man strong – yes that’s six, a drummer, a keyboard player, a singer and three guitars - boundless energy. The crowd had well and truly fallen for them.
The secret of their success had to be partly due to their sycophantic comments towards the crowd – “you guys are awesome”, “you guys are crazy”, and “you guys have the sexiest accents” – apparently only guys in the audience tonight.
But, flattery does indeed get you everywhere and it certainly got Forever The Sickest Kids the crowd’s attention that night.
After saying all that the real reason the band won the crowd over was that they had a great interaction with the audience.
They got the crowd involved and at one point asked everyone to throw bracelets on the stage for them to wear; the singer even donned a pair of orange gloves that someone sacrificed, and they had a good banter with the crowd.
They also looked like they were having a great time, not taking anything too seriously and just enjoying playing music.
Watch out for Forever The Sickest Kids when they come back with a headline tour next year.
Next up were the guys we all came to see, the lovable Texan pop punkers Bowling For Soup. If forever the sickest kids wooed the crowd with audience participation and looking like they were having a ball, then they most definitely picked it up from being on tour with Bowling For Soup.
Bowling For Soup have to be the most hilarious, chatty and quick witted band you will see live.
The banter is great although it is not surprising as these guys have been together for 16 years and that genuine friendship comes across on stage.
They’ve also recorded 11 albums and as you can imagine, having been around for a while, the band has an extensive back catalogue with some real pop punk hits in it.
The band manage to combine punchy energy and quirky insightful lyrics such as “when did Motley Crue become classic rock?” with a comedy twist.
A highlight of the set was most definitely the Grammy nominated Girl All The Bad Guys Want, so good in-fact an over-excited fan stage invaded during the song.
Another highlight was the brilliant culturally reference loaded 1985, which had the crowd signing whole heartedly - so much so singer Jaret Reddick commented “great singing by you guys”.
They also played, amongst others, the whimsical Almost, High School Never Ends, My Wena, BFFF, Punk Rock 101, No Hablo Ingles and the theme to the cartoon Phineas & Ferb.
Also, they played new song Friends, Chicks, Guitars which is available as a free download on their website.
The true high point came when ‘A’ guitarist Mark joined them on-stage for a cover of the Bon Jovi classic You Give Love A Bad Name, absolutely brilliant and loads of fun.
Bowling For Soup look like a band who genuinely love music and have a huge amount of fun making music , which makes them a great live band.
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