Having completed a run in Australia earlier this year, the Bowl My Bones co-headline tour featuring Bowling For Soup and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls is currently rampaging up and down the UK. Tonight it was the turn of Llangollen, the Welsh town boasting its own purpose built outside yet covered venue the Pavilion, which really is a wonderful spot to host entertainment. Warming things up for the headliners were American Hi-Fi, the Boston pop-punk quartet returning to the these shores for the first time in more than a decade. Afforded a warm reception, Stacy Jones immediately got the crowd on side by declaring his Welsh heritage, and they kicked off with ‘Surround’ and ‘Scar’ from 2001’s eponymous debut album. The years may have passed but American Hi-Fi have lost none of their spark and energy, with ‘The Breakup Song’, ‘The Art of Losing’ and ‘Flavor of the Weak’ all given an enthusiastic response. With just over half an hour on stage, there was barely time to take a breath, albeit power-pop ballad ‘Another Perfect Day’ dropped the pace a little and prompted the nights first sing-a-long. A great way to set the scene for the headliners, this was a welcome return for American Hi-Fi and should give them the confidence that when they return to the UK, the audience will be there for them.
Frank Turner is more than two years into touring on the back of 2024’s Undefeated and he and the Sleeping Souls have this down to perfection. With seventy five minutes to play with, this allows Turner to deliver a truncated set that, aside from his obligatory acoustic interlude, delivered one rock solid punk anthem after another with no filler whatsoever. He started with ‘I Still Believe’, his love letter to the pioneers of rock and roll, and finished by indulging in his customary spot of crowd surfing during ‘Four Simple Words’. Tonight was FT show number 3163 and yet his very first in the town of Llangollen. “That means I’ve played 3,162 warm-up shows just for this gig” he declared, and for anyone witnessing him for the first time this will surely be one night that lives long in the memory. The work he has put in over the years and the bond he has built with his audience is something very special, and tonight was no exception to that.
Although he is often given the folk-punk label, Turner is not easily pigeon holed. ‘No Thank You for the Music’ and ‘1933’ are full of anger and angst, ‘Wessex Boy’ takes him back to his roots and, played solo and acoustic, ‘The Way I Tend To Be’ is a tender reflection on heartbreak and loss. All of these and more just add weight to the opinion of this writer that Turner is one of the finest songwriters of this century. But not only does he pen some classics, he engages with the crowd from start to finish, making everyone feel included and in the moment. By the time they get to ‘Recovery’ and ‘Polaroid Picture’, the Pavilion is one mass of jumping bodies and flailing limbs. There is a line in ‘I Still Believe’ when Turner declares that “something as simple as rock and roll could save us all”, and on nights like this you have to say he is probably right.
Every bit as brash, loud and ballsy as they look, Bowling For Soup came to party and the Llangollen audience were only to happy to come along with them for the ride. There is something infectiously happy and upbeat about a BFS show that starts from the fun the guys are having on stage and reverberates from the front row to the back. From the cartoon intro that ushered them on stage to kick start their set with ‘Almost’, Jaret Reddick and co had the crowd hanging on to their every word. One feel-good anthem followed another as they ripped through the likes of ‘High School Never Ends’, ‘Ohio (Come Back to Texas)’ and ‘Punk Rock 101’.
With plenty of between song banter and tongue in cheek humour, BFS are most definitely here to entertain. American Hi-Fi’s Stacy Jones was welcomed back to the stage to sit in on drums during the joyous ‘Stacy’s Mom’ and there was a celebratory feeling in the air as everyone sang along to ‘Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day’. It was nevertheless fitting that Jaret took some time to speak about mental health, including his own struggles, before a stripped back rendition of ‘Turbulence’. They have always found a willing audience here in the UK and you can be sure it won’t be too long before BFS come back over here again. They closed out what had been a tremendous evening with ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’ and ‘1985’, ending the night on a wave of nostalgia and euphoria.
All photos by kind permission of CUFFE & TAYLOR
