It can’t be easy to leave half your band behind, armed with only acoustic guitars, and travel to a foreign country to impress crowds. Some bands would run and hide at the prospect, some might even cry, but Jaret & Erik ran with it, embraced it, and created a fantastic show. Before their opening date at the Roadmender, Northampton - new territory for the band, I almost felt a sense of apprehension for them. Not because they wouldn’t be good, far from it, but because of the nature of the venue. After countless gigs there, I’ve come to realise that it’s great, but the average audience is far from enthusiastic. Most people spend half their time outside smoking; and I believe I once saw someone fall asleep. I needn’t have considered this though, because they grabbed the attention of the crowd throughout the entire set, throwing back remarks that silenced even the most persistent of hecklers!
The acoustic nature of the show created an atmosphere I hadn’t ever really seen at a gig before. The ordinary barrier between band and audience was removed, creating a sense of equality, rather than the usual ‘rockstar’ status often associated with established bands. They’re ordinary people after all, no different from anyone else in the room, something that really seemed to resonate at that particular gig. Erik Chandlers solo set provided a great start to the show, proving the songs sound as good live as they do on his recent EP. His voice is almost as distinctive as Jaret’s – he should sing far more in Bowling For Soup! People On Vacation produced an equally successful set, with Ryan in no way being overshadowed, and as liked by the crowd as Jaret & Erik were. I was trying to decide how I would describe their music, finally settling on ‘Bowling For Soup if they run out of Prozac’. I mean this in a good way – it’s different, it’s not something you’d want to listen to 24/7, for fear of uncontrollable crying, but it works.
If there was one thing that the audience learned from the show, it was that Bowling For Soup songs played acoustically sound really, really good. Without sounding like a BFS bore, it was incredible to hear Turbulence played so simply – the lyrics have been incredibly helpful at certain points in my life, and from the looks of fellow audience members, and the enthusiastic singing along, I’m certainly not the only one! The show seemed to carry on forever (in a good way!), with an impressive amount of songs played. Even hanging around afterwards, scrounging for autographs, (thank you very nice people also on the tour!) I didn’t feel like I shouldn’t be there. I left the venue feeling genuinely impressed, somewhat uplifted, and very happy.
