February was a busy month and included three gigs, running at almost one per week, bringing the 2025 total to a respectable five so far.
First up were Bowling For Soup at the BIC. A venue almost four times the size of the one I saw them play at their supposed height 21 years ago.
We spent a fair chunk of the night, and days after trying to wrap our heads around this. The band haven’t had a hit in the UK for decades, yet the popularity of their live show is increasing. How? For the most part I think you can put this down to the band playing consistently fun and enjoyable gigs.
Now I like a moody shoegaze set in a room so small you could quickly learn everyone’s name (if it weren’t for our inherently introvert nature drawing us to that genre in the first place), but I’m also partial to a lighthearted, nostalgia-driven concert, in an arena with thousands of other people looking for some respite from the god awful news of late on a Saturday night.
It was a rare opportunity to hear the band’s most consistent album (imo) A Hangover You Don’t Deserve played live in full and I loved every track. No apologies for singing along, perhaps a little too loud at times.
In the encore the band brought on a choir to join them for their breakthrough hit Girl All The Bad Guys Want. Here’s a heartwarming story of how this came to be, courtesy of Radio 2 DJ, Owain Wyn Evans.
Alas, there was no crossing paths with frontman Jaret Reddick at the after party again this year, so we may have to wait a little longer for the next instalment of our photo in a photo (in a photo..). To be fair it took 7 years to get the second one, so it may be a while before a third.
The good times continued the following Friday in Bournemouth with The Lottery Winners at O2 Academy. At the tail end of 2024, Sam and I travelled to Manchester for the band’s ‘Burning House Party’ shows, thus making this our third time seeing them in less than two months.
I’d have gladly made it six shows. This is another band who are seeing the crowd sizes swell and it’s no coincidence that they too provide an uplifting night out, as well as having great songs to boot.
What did surprise me, was seeing rows of middle aged men manage to pick up a tongue-in-cheek dance routine for latest single Turn Around in about a minute or so and then perform it throughout the song, without the painful sense of self awareness you might have expected for the demographic.
Here’s a bonus ‘crowd cam’ video, filmed during the encore / closer of Burning House, featuring an accidentally, well framed appearance from Martin Whitchurch.
Another six days later came the third gig of the month, Circa Waves at The 1865 in Southampton. Due to a reschedule of their October 2023 date in Southampton, this show followed just 13 months after our last time seeing them in the city, albeit at Engine Rooms.
The addition of songs from the new record, including Like You Did Before (below) from last month’s mixtape, made for some differentiation between the two events, because both sets were very much on a par in truth. Solid UK indie tunes, played fast and tight.
I was late to the party on this band, only getting into them on album number 5. I feel I’ve made up for lost time in the past few years, though still yet to take a real deep dive into the early half of their discography.
Liam Toms 