Bowling For Soup at FIVE, Jacksonville (Nov 12, 2025)

 

90s band Bowling For Soup are currently on their “Warped or Bust” tour, stopping by FIVE, in Jacksonville, Florida, last night (Nov 12). As the name suggests, while making their way to the next Warped Tour show (the next Warped Tour is in Orlando on Nov 15 & 16), they have scheduled some headlining shows in cities leading up to Warped.

If you’re not familiar with FIVE, it’s a new-ish venue (officially opened in mid-2025) and is located in the busy area of Riverside and Avondale. This it was formerly the Riverside Theater, the staging is designed to be viewable from anywhere in the building (so even in the back of the venue, you can clearly see the stage because you’re on higher grounds).

Pennsylvania’s Don’t Panic opened the mini-Warped show. They said they were just happy to play a place that wasn’t snowing, I guess the band have been on tour for a long time and through “three seasons”.

They said that this was their last show with Bowling for Soup, but I guess ‘don’t panic’, because their next show is at Warp in Orlando. I think they’re used to being first on the bill, or supporting other bigger acts, so they’re always thankful for the fans that did show up early to check them out.

The band originally formed in 2009 but broke up shortly… before reuniting during the pandemic years, producing an LP in 2020. They played original songs, like “Conscience” on their set, and they cited being influenced by Bayside and Foo Fighters.

 

 

 

The Dollyrots were next, their walk-on music was Looney Tunes, medley with Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl”. Coming back to Florida, playing Jacksonville, it meant a lot to the band, because bassist/lead vocalist Kelly Ogden and guitarist Luis Cabezas grew up in Land o’ Lakes, in Florida.

Kelly said how when they were 14 years old, they went to Warped Tour in Jacksonville (in 1996), and they didn’t have any money so they ended up sleeping on the beach. They had a weird story about seeing a “UFO” lights, but I guess it turned out to be the nearby military base. Still, they have very fond memories of Jacksonville, and their cover of Melanie’s “Brand New Key” was the song that Kelly was obsessed with at the time.

They also mentioned that their current drummer, Simon Hancock, is from England, and that he has horses? Maybe I misheard. They seemed like a fun bunch, especially because everyone on this tour is very close to each other. The band said that basically Bowling for Soup taught them how to tour as they took them under their wings in 2009.

Walking on to their own theme song, Bowling for Soup, you know that’s going to be “a great day”. As previously mentioned when we saw the band in August 2025, that Bowling for Soup’s set of songs may not be that long, as half of it is basically Jaret Reddick doing “stand-up” comedy.

Surprisingly a lot of parents and their young children was at the show, possibly because they were fans of the Disney Channel’s animated series Phineas and Ferb (Bowling for Soup’s “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day” is the theme song). It is weird, but Bowling for Soup’s jokes had numerous F-bombs and very adult… not kids friendly, like say, Koo Koo Kanga Roo or They Might Be Giants… so I’m not sure if they were the right band for these children, but I could be wrong.

Early in the set, Jaret made the mistake of referring to the audience as “Duval”. Like Jaret, I don’t know what the big deal was… but all was forgiven as they launched into crowd favorites like “High School Never Ends”, with mini-various cover songs like Toni Basil’s “Mickey”, Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” (made famous by Quiet Riot), and Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”

If you like goofy punk-rock, bands who don’t take themselves too seriously, you’ll have a fun time at a Bowling for Soup show.

vu ♥ wheartm.com ♥ www.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ instagram.com/weheartmusicgroup