
Bowling For Soup blew up as the (even more) sarcastic, millennial version of Blink 182. They are an irreverent, fun band that filters its indifference through pop-punk melodies and shout along choruses.
The band was birthed in Wichita Falls, Texas when Jarret Riddick recruited Chris Burney - a fellow punk rock and new wave fan, high school friend and guitarist turned coffeehouse owner - to start a band. Soon bassist Erik Chandler and drummer Gary Wiseman came on board, and their lineup was set for the long haul. The band has gone through many name changes, but in 1994 they finally settled on Bowling for Soup as a nod to one of Steve Martin’s legendary comedy albums.
The band toured for years, releasing independently recorded singles and EPs, while sporadically popping up on various compilations, before Jive Records, whose flagship artists were Britney Spears and N*Sync, signed them to a record contract in 1999. When their debut album was released the following year, it was essentially a repackaging of their older independently released material.
Their second album, “Drunk Enough to Dance,” followed two years later with their first hit single “Girl All the Bad Guys Want,” which garnered them their first Grammy nomination for “Best Pop Performance from a Duo or Group.”
Their next album, “The Hangover You Don’t Deserve,” produced the band’s biggest single to date, “1985," a snarky send up of approaching middle age in a post millennium world, that waxed nostalgic for the group members’ high school heyday and asked indelible questions like “When did reality become t.v.?” “When did Ozzy become an actor?” and “When did Motley Crue become classic rock?”
The band has continued to release albums and tour with varying commercial success, including their most recent album, 2013’s “Lunch. Drunk. Love.”
Bowling for Soup will be performing tomorrow June 25 at Mercury Ballroom on its “Bowling For Soup is Finally 21 Tour.” Tickets are available for $17.50, and the show begins at 8 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Bowling for Soup