INTERVIEW: BOWLING FOR SOUP (JARET REDDICK)

There are concerts you go to for the music, concerts you go to for the nostalgia, and then there are concerts that somehow manage to deliver both while turning the audience into one giant, very loud family reunion.

The upcoming Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup and 3OH!3 show at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica on Thursday, August 13, is definitely the latter. The Cleveland stop on Simple Plan’s Bigger Than You Think! Tour – The Sequel! is already sold out—and honestly, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The three bands have a combined catalog of early-2000s pop-punk and alternative hits that practically demands to be screamed back from the crowd.

For Bowling for Soup frontman Jaret Reddick, the appeal of the tour is pretty simple: It’s a night where virtually everyone knows the words.

“They’re all selling out, man! It’s crazy. It’s a really good tour. We did it last year and are so glad that Simple Plan decided to do it again and to bring us and 3OH!3 back out for it. It’s three bands that all had hits around the same time. There’s a lot of singing along. It’s the first tour that I can remember ever doing where everybody in the crowd knows every word to every song by all the bands. It’s a lot of fun!”

That kind of universal singalong is exactly what makes this tour such a perfect fit for Bowling for Soup. The Texas pop-punk veterans have spent more than three decades turning humor, hooks and infectious energy into a career that has connected with fans who first discovered the band as teenagers and never really stopped listening.

Formed in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1994, Bowling for Soup broke through to a much larger audience in the early 2000s, eventually earning a Grammy nomination and scoring their biggest mainstream success with the 2004 album ‘A Hangover You Don’t Deserve’. The record produced the band’s signature hit, “1985”, which became a Top 25 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Bowling for Soup isn’t the longevity of its music. It’s the longevity of its audience.

Ask Reddick about the people who have grown up with the band, and the conversation quickly becomes a story about generations.

“It’s one of those things that we’ve seen throughout our career. I guess it’s probably because we were a bar band first, so our crowd was a little older. People started bringing their kids to our shows fairly early as we started getting out of that bar scene and into actual venues and stuff.”

And it didn’t stop there.

“We’ve seen up to four generations of fans, where you’ve got grandparents, parents, kids, and then their kids. I mean, it’s crazy and it’s just awesome.”

Think about that for a second. A song that might have been blasting from a teenager’s stereo two decades ago can now be part of a family road trip playlist. The kid who once begged Mom and Dad to take them to a Bowling for Soup concert can now be the parent buying the tickets and bringing their own kids.

For Reddick, that’s more than a cool byproduct of having a long career. It’s one of the things that defines Bowling for Soup.

“One of the coolest things about our band that has absolutely rang true for our entire career is we’re kind of that band that brings parents and kids together. We’re the band that parents and kids can agree on.”

He’s heard that sentiment directly from fans countless times.

“I’d have a dad come up to me at the merch booth and just say, ‘I had absolutely nothing in common with my daughter. Then we heard Bowling for Soup and now we go to pop-punk shows all the time.’ I think being a band that’s known for that, it’s something that we hold pretty dear.”

That cross-generational appeal makes a night like this one especially fitting. Simple Plan is celebrating 25 years of music, while 3OH!3 and Bowling for Soup bring their own catalog of instantly recognizable songs to the party.

And yes, “1985” will almost certainly be one of the biggest singalong moments of the night.

The song has taken on a life of its own over the years, particularly as younger generations have discovered it and fans have created their own versions and parodies online. So, naturally, Reddick has been asked the obvious question: Why not write a new version of “1985” for a different generation?

His answer is refreshingly straightforward.

“The reason we don’t remake it is because we like all the parodies that happen on TikTok and on Instagram. There’s so many of them and they pop up all the time and some of them go viral and they’re just done so well. I don’t want to deter that.”

Instead of trying to recreate the magic, Reddick would rather let the song continue evolving on its own.

“I think that in itself just kind of throws back to the song for us and gets people to listen to it again. I don’t want to put a stop to that.”

And there’s another problem with trying to write a sequel: Reddick isn’t sure he’s qualified to tell the story.

“I don’t know if I’m cool enough to really write a song about being a kid in 2006, because I had kids in 2006. For now, it’s not on our radar, but I won’t say never.”

There will be longtime Bowling for Soup fans who remember discovering the band in their younger years. There will be parents introducing their children to songs they grew up with. There will be fans of Simple Plan and 3OH!3 reliving their own pop-punk years. And, if Reddick’s experience is any indication, there may even be a few families spanning multiple generations.

“It’s a really fun night. There’s a lot of love in the room at these shows, and so I’m just excited. I’m very, very glad that we’re bringing it to Cleveland and we’ll see you soon!”