DS Show Review & Gallery: Bowling For Soup, Eternal Boy and Keep Flying – Chicago (07.26.2024)

Bowling for Soup, hailing from Witchita Falls, TX, is on the road celebrating the anniversary of its 2004 release A Hangover You Don’t Deserve. Unfortunately, it was down one member. Chris Burney, still recovering from a foot/leg injury, was still resting on his doctor’s orders. The band released a statement making one thing clear,

“We will not be enlisting a sub guitar player…you cannot replace a legend.”

However, the band still brought the good times as it ripped through the tracklisting of AHYDD. It was a fun set with the highlights being “1985,” “Ohio (Come Back to Texas)” performed with Eternal Boy, “Shut Up and Smile,” “Next Girlfriend,” and “High School Never Ends.” BFS also invited an audience member onstage to spin a wheel which determined which non-AHYDD tune the band would play. In this case, the winner was “Emily.”

Scanning the audience revealed a crowd of multiple generations and it appeared in many cases a family affair. And it seemed those families sure were having a blast.

There are still many chances to catch Bowling For Soup on the road through October in the United States. The band then heads to the UK in February 2025.

Eternal Boy, from Pittsburgh, PA provided strong support as it ran through its set. That set included, “Freak Show,” “Awkward Phase,” “Version Of Myself,” and “Katie.”

The band also did a respectable and cheeky cover of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

Solid set, solid band.

Keep Flying, from the Northeast region of the United States, barreled onto the stage and through its performance. Several members of the band took its name seriously as they repeatedly went airborne.

The high-energy, entertaining set included, “Late Reply,” ”Left Behind,” “Candy Cane Forest,” “High Cholesterol,” and “Miranda,” among others. I was exhausted watching Keep Flying, but a good version of exhausted.