Reel Big Fish and Bowling For Soup Bring Fun to New Haven!

One of the best times one can have is at a Reel Big Fish concert or at a Bowling For Soup concert. Combine the two bands on the same bill and you are in for an amazing night! These two powerhouses of fun-time music recently hit New Haven’s College Street Music Hall. Later in the week, they both ended up on the bill at Atlantic City’s installment of Van’s Warped Tour.

Opening the show was Connecticut’s own fun-time band, The Zambonis. As you might guess, these guys sing songs mostly about hockey. To throw a curveball, they sing their songs in a ska / reggae fashion. At first blush it seems a bit odd. However, it quickly grows on the listener.

These 28-year veterans of the music scene hit the stage this evening dressed in hockey regalia. No doubt they were melting by the end of their set. The Zambonis have had their share of legal battles over the years. One was regarding the use of the name Zamboni, a registered trademark. Another was a battle over the use of reggae great Bob Marely’s name in their song, “Bob Marley & the Hartford Whalers”. They’ve had some high profile recognition in the NHL world but sadly don’t get the recognition they deserve.

Up next were the pop-punk darlings from Wichita Falls, Texas, Bowling For Soup. 2019 sees BFS celebrating 25 years of putting out light-hearted feel good music with an edge. Their latest release is 2018’s “Live From Brixton, Older, Fatter, Still The Greatest Ever” which was recorded live in London.

As with their performance on that recording, they really brought their ‘A’ game to Connecticut. The band focuses on music but they have fun while doing it. Midway through their set they posed for photos for audience cell phone photographers and later, had a joke telling contest with drummer Gary Wiseman emerging victorious. Bowling For Soup clearly enjoys doing what they do and frontman Jaret Reddick once told the NY Post, “If it wasn’t fun, we’d break up.” Let’s hope touring and playing together keeps being fun for BFS for many years to come!

Reel Big Fish closed out the evening’s show. RBF formed in 1991 in Orange County, California. They are best known for their big hit, “Sell Out”. While often grouped with ska punk bands such as Rancid and Less Than Jake, their style is more traditional ska in line with late 70’s darlings of ska, The Selecter.

RBF had the crowd up and dancing right from the very beginning and all through their set.  As with Bowling For Soup, one can see that Reel Big Fish has fun at what they do. Their set was peppered with covers done in a ska style as only RBF can do such as Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and A-Ha’s “Take On Me”. Even though it was a weeknight show and they played a long set, the audience was left wanting more, always a sign of a great show!

Click here for live show dates for Bowling For Soup and for Reel Big Fish