Photos: Bowling For Soup rickroll The Truman

Meredith Schneider,
Screenshot 2024 07 22 At 85030pm

Bowling for Soup. // Photo by Meredith Schneider

On Thursday, July 18th, Bowling For Soup headlined an energetic, nostalgic show at The Truman.

The four-piece—currently made up of Jaret Reddick, Chris Burney, Gary Wiseman, and Rob Felicetti (who you might recognize from The Ataris)—brought their quintessential aughts pop-punk flare to a sold-out crowd in Kansas City on one of the most beautiful Thursday nights to date of the summer. Early in the set, Jaret admitted that the band is closely tied to this city, but has never sold out a gig.

Until now.

Another announcement early on—for those who don’t follow the band closely on social media—was a reminder that Chris Burney is currently out of the live lineup to heal from an injury. They added his jersey to a mannequin for the duration of the set, which was wildly decorated to call back to the bright, funky ambiance of the album for which the tour exists—A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, celebrating 20 years of existence.

A few songs into the set, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” blared from the speakers as the band walked together and posed at various points on stage so the crowd could take band photos. It was a silly break for everyone as the band got back into the swing of North American touring. Their first show of the 20th Anniversary Tour was the night prior in Hays, KS.

Bowling For Soup’s set included 18 songs and three encore tracks. This is an incredible feat—especially at such a maintained energy level—when you consider the ages of the band members. Jaret pointed out almost immediately that he is 52 years old. You could feel a widely ranging—however mostly millennial—crowd collectively gasp at that knowledge, as it brought us all out of our punk bubble into a reality check.

But only for a moment.

I haven’t seen this band in entirely too long, but I can say for certain that they rock no less than they did back in 2006. They brought fun set design to the stage and powered through an album no one will soon forget, sprinkling in additional bangers along the way.

While many of our emo-leaning favorites are crawling out of the woodwork to mount tours driven on nostalgia’s sake alone, Bowling For Soup continue to have true chemistry (and a whole lot of fun) on stage. It’s unique and it’s invigorating.

Our photographer Meredith Schneider was there to capture the event:

 

Setlist
Almost
Trucker Hat
1985 (SR‐71 cover)
Get Happy
Shut-Up and Smile
Ohio (Come Back to Texas) (with Eternal Boy)
Ridiculous
Last Call Casualty
Next Ex-Girlfriend
A-Hole
My Hometown
Smoothie King
Sad Sad Situation
My Wena (Song selected by wheel spin on stage)
Really Might Be Gone
Down for the Count
Two-Seater
Friends o’ Mine

Encore:
High School Never Ends
Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day
Girl All the Bad Guys Want

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