Kari's Concert Collection

How Did Bowling For Soup Get In This Lineup?

Arrived around 5:45. Got my tickets from the KDWB will call, and went in. Found a good spot in the grass with a view of the jumbotron. Finally at 6 o'clock all the DJ's made their appearance on stage. Actually the announcer called them KDWB on air staff, but whatever. They shared that there would be three unlisted acts performing. There was a Verizon sponsored hip-hop dance crew. A girl that was with that thing gave me a Verizon bandanna. Second was a 12 year old boy who won a contest to perform at the show. He did "New York, New York." He could really belt out the high notes. And last was A/X, a local hip-hop artist who also performed at last year�s LCSD. I recognized all the songs from last year, and was surprised I still remember most of the lyrics. He was okay, although I would like it much more if it were my music of choice. One of the rappers in his crew had streetteam people handing out flyers.

The jumbotron had the order of acts on the screen. BFS was third. So next was the white girl rapper Sarai. She really surprised me. Looking at her you don't expect to hear what comes out. She can really spit out some quick lyrics. She was my favorite of the hip-hop acts. Again, this is something I would have liked a lot more if it were my music of choice. Next was MVP, a rapping trio. Didn't impress me too much.

During the next break I entered the area in front of the stage while my dad stayed out on the grass. I wanted to feel the vibe of the crowd, and it's hard to do that out in the back. It was a crowd filled 80 to 85 percent full of hip-hoppers. A very small percentage was there just for Bowling For Soup. I saw them wandering in the back during the other acts. But at this point they had definitely invaded the front area. There was already crowd surfing during the set up time.

There were some hip-hop kids near where I was standing that were waiting it out so they didn't lose their spots. They were quite amusing during BFS. They were looking around like they had no idea what was going on with crowdsurfers and everyone pushing and jumping around. Some even watched the band in disgust. Some people were spraying water to cool off the crowd, and two girls in front of me flipped out. Yeah, it was funny. But there was one part where a girl was crowdsurfing and the people to my left did not know what to do. Instead of helping here over and past they just moved out of the way and she dropped straight to the ground. She got right up and said she was okay, but still that had to hurt.

And now for the actual band. Before each act comes out there's an interview shown on the jumbotron. They were interviewed by Curt Copeland (who had some major "Plus One Hair" going on, might I add), and they were his "bleeping section" to bleep out his swear words. Jaret, the lead singer, said it was more of a boop sound like, "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system� BOOP!! More randomness was the onstage intro with Noele Walker, a local news anchor. She showed the proper way to throw up the horns and headbang. It was very strange. And finally Bowling For Soup took the stage. I only really knew two of their songs, but it was still rockin'. Jaret said he felt like a deer with the spotlight on him. Said he though he would be shot at any moment. Brought it up again a few times saying something about being rushed at by rednecks, and then asked if we had rednecks up here. He also said to watch out because there might still be horses running and you don't want to be trampled by them.

Jaret at one point was talking in Avril Lavigne lyrics. That was happily the beginning of a cover song medley. Started with Avril Lavigne "Complicated," and continued with Jennifer Lopez "Jenny From The Block," B2K "Bump Bump Bump," 50 Cent "In Da Club," Shaggy "Angel," and Justin Timberlake "Rock Your Body." The last two were my favorites. The Shaggy impression was hilarious and sounded like a duck with a stuffy nose. And the Justin was funny because he sang really high. And their final song was a full-length cover of "Summer Of '69" that was awesome. They mentioned an autograph signing, but I didn't feel like standing in line. Before leaving the front, Bowling For Soup's water bottles were thrown out and I almost caught one. The guy behind me got it instead.

Back with dad he had a funny story about how a grasshopper landed on him. That in itself was funny, because last year that exact thing happened to me like three times. He swatted it off, and it landed on the blanket of a group of girls sitting in front of us. I guess they freaked out and were screaming and tossed the blanket. Sounded funny. We then left sense I didn't care about any other acts. As we were leaving there was still quite a few just arriving. They were coming just to see Ashanti.

And that was the shortest concert recap thus far.

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