Bowling for Soup to strike up some fun at Music Fest 2012

September 12, 2012 | Events, UToday
By Samantha Watson



Bowling for Soup will make a stop at The University of Toledo Friday, Sept. 14, perhaps to confirm whether “High School Never Ends” or maybe just to thrill the crowd at Music Fest 2012.

Bowling for Soup

Either way, this won’t be the first time the band has visited the Glass City; the guys have performed countless times at Headliners on North Detroit Avenue. They’ve even left a piece of themselves at the venue.

“Our sound guy actually stood up on the sound board and got the top of his head sliced off by a ceiling fan there,” said Jaret Reddick, lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the band. “Every time we go back, we get to re-live him getting his head sliced. I mean, it’s been put back, obviously, but it’s a great memory.”

The group has been on a short break, with shows like this one scattered here and there. They plan to start gearing up in the next month to prepare for their European tour that will begin in October.

At Music Fest, Reddick said the band will perform some of their more popular songs like “High School Never Ends,” “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” and “1985.” They also will feature some of the songs released on their 2011 album, Fishin’ for Woos.

Reddick said he loves performing the crowd favorites because of the energy that goes along with them, but trying to find an absolute favorite is impossible.

“It’s hard to pick a favorite; they’re like kids,” Reddick said. “Some days you like one more than the other, but you love them all.”

Speaking of kids, the father of two hates being away from his own but has gotten a chance to be home more recently and said he’s never away for more than two weeks at a time.

“Being away from [my kids] is hard,” Reddick said. “You expect it to get better as time goes on, but it gets worse; they grow up and you miss things. I try not to miss as much as possible.”

Reddick said that except for this past spring, he’s gone on every field trip with his daughter, Emma. He also has a younger son, Jack. He and his family live in Texas, which is where the band originally formed.

Each member played in different groups before founding Bowling for Soup. Their bands all played in a coffee shop that was owned by the group’s guitar player, Chris Burney.

“We started playing together for fun and then started to think maybe we had something more,” Reddick said. “We haven’t looked back.”

When Reddick is not spending time with his family or performing with the band, he’s doing side projects. He is the voice of a character on the Disney children’s cartoon “Phineas and Ferb,” the lead singer of the fictional band Love Händel. Bowling for Soup also performed the show’s theme song, “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day.”

Earlier this year, Reddick became the new voice of Chuck E. Cheese.

“[These projects are] like a savior to me,” Reddick said. “You never want to get to a point where you feel like you’re going through the motions. This keeps things fresh.”

Bowling for Soup — Reddick, Burney, bass player Erik Chandler and drummer Gary Wiseman — will take the stage at Music Fest at 10:45 p.m.

The music will start at 3 p.m. at the free, public event. Other performers will be Gloriana, Tyler Hilton, Alexander Zonjic and Jeff Lorber, K’JON, HotSauce and The Dumb Easies.

For more information, visit utoledo.edu/musicfest and bowlingforsoup.com.

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