2 May 2026 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Bec Harbour
Last time Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner were in the country, it was for Good Things 2024. And in stuff we would learn later in the night, that festival would become the genesis point for what is now called the Bowl My Bones tour, taking parts of Bowling for Soups name and the 2011 record England Keep My Bones by Turner. Completing this triple bill of a murders row of talent, was Brisbane pop punk group Talk Heavy, who have developed their own cult following in the local scene.
Talk Heavy were out first for the night, and I’ve become a big fan of this crew after the South Arcade Good Things headline show. Seeing them continue a dope trajectory of working with amazing headliners is cool to see. Vocalist Matt Cochran continues to be one of the funniest dudes on the planet, with jokes about how he has a hot take about love being cool, and asking the crowd to wave “bye bye” at the end of the set, before they loaded their entire rig into a car to drive to Sydney to play there tomorrow.
Talk Heavy – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
All members shined on stage during the set, as they belted through bangers like “Something Cool“, my favourite track ‘The Montreal Screwjob’, and ‘Die 4 U’. Cochran made an impassioned speech towards the end, talking about how much buying merch helps bands, so if you’re on this tour, pick up some Talk Heavy merch and support one of my favourite pop punk bands in Australia right now. The set closed off strong with ‘Hoping the Middle’, and I heard a lot of cross talk after the set about people liking them a lot. Hopefully this leads to bigger spots for them in the future.
Bang on 8:20pm, the lights dropped as Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls walked out to a massive ovation, and immediately kicked their hour-long set into gear with ‘I Still Believe’, which in my opinion is an underrated choice for a set opener. And it showed, as Turner had Brisbane eating out of the palm of his hand within the first two minutes. The crowd belted the massive “I still believe” chant towards the end of the song, and the energy only escalated from here. ‘Try This at Home’ and ‘Never Mind the Back Problems’ got loud singalongs, with ‘Back Problems’ even getting a massive clap along.
Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
During ‘Photosynthesis’, Turner did an extended break in the middle to quickly introduce the band and himself, and spoke about his love for coming back to Australia, and specifically, Brisbane. During our sit down interview which will drop later this week, Turner mentioned how during the headline tour of 2023, Brisbane was his favourite show of that run, and he was excited to be back in the same room playing again. He then had the crowd form a circle pit for the final chorus, but had the crowd go slow, then a little faster, then a little more faster, until the full spin kicked in on the final chorus. I’ve seen it live three times now and it’s still just as fun to witness.
Turner mentioned the extreme jetlag the band was having, but it didn’t matter. They were in Brisbane to have fun and tear it up, so they were going to give it their all. With the announcement that tonight was show 3147, we got ‘Girl From the Record Shop’, before the loud exclamation of “this is an anti fascist song” which drew a massive cheer from the crowd as ‘1933’ began. ‘No Thank You for the Music’ got a wall of hugs instead of a wall of death, and we had the acoustic guitar brought out on stage for solo performances of ‘The Ballad of Me and My Friends’ and ‘If I Ever Stray’. The full band came back out for ‘Recovery’, and we got probably the biggest surprise of the night, with ‘Long Live the Queen’, which is a track I didn’t expect live.
Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
After ‘Long Live the Queen’, Jaret Reddick from Bowling for Soup ran out on stage, and Turner called for security to take him off, which drew a big laugh. Turner started to talk about how he and the Sleeping Souls are really nice people. And how he knows everyone is here for him and the band, but once they were done, they were going to let some friends on stage after he was done and let them have a go at playing music, because it’s the polite thing to do. He asked the crowd to stay for at least two songs, and to give them a chance. After a chuckle, he let the crowd know he was being an asshole, and wanted Brisbane to make as much noise as they could for the “incomparable” Bowling for Soup, to which Brisbane made some of the loudest noise of the night.
After telling the crowd about how because of how he and Bowling for Soup got the chance to play Good Things 2024, that festival led to this tour, and how grateful he was for Australia to allow that to happen. He then dedicated ‘Punches’ to Bowling for Soup. After doing a full band introduction, and introducing everyone one by one, Turner actually referenced a conversation I had earlier with him about drummer Callum Green saying on the 2023 headline tour, he was going to move to Brisbane. Green said he had moved, jokingly, and that the transit for shows was rough which got another big laugh. Turner then had the crowd sing the “do’s” in ‘Do One’, and got the crowd jumping for ‘Polaroid Picture’. The set closed out with “Get Better“ and a final ask of “show me what you’ve fucking got” as Turner closed strong on ‘Four Simple Words’, ending his hour with the crowd wanting another hour from him. Fingers crossed Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls are back soon.
Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
While the Turner set was fun, the best fun was yet to come. the ‘BFS Theme Song’ blasted through the speakers as soon as hit hit 10pm, and the crowd went ballistic as Bowling for Soup walked on stage. They immediately kicked the show in with ‘Almost’, and once the song was completed, gave themselves a worthy congratulations for playing the first song on the greatest concert Brisbane will ever see, unless Slipknot was in town. That joke got a massive laugh from me when Reddick said it because I didn’t expect it. Reddick then got the crowd to sing the “do’s” again from ‘Do One’ by Frank Turner, before going acapella on the chorus to ‘Fight for Your Right’ by Beastie Boys. That led into ‘High School Never Ends’, and as the song finished, he asked the crowd to shower them in love because they were about to play three songs in a row, which for them was a massive achievement.
Bowling for Soup – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
Reddick then did a metal scream and pooped his pants, before introducing their song about “the great state of Texas”, and playing ‘Ohio (Come Back to Texas)’. The next part of the show was the most unexpectedly chaotic bit of the show. Reddick called all Mexican north of Texas bullshit, but said Australia can really make a good margarita. He shouted out El Camino Cantina, which is a dope Mexican restaurant around the corner from the venue, and one guy actively boo’d El Camino in the crowd, and then The Tivoli started an insane GYG chant. Someone from the crowd had to explain what GYG is to Reddick, and bassist Rob Felicetti gave GYG 2 points for alliteration, and 0 points for crowd singability. They then started talking about peanut butter, as they asked the crowd who had actually finished a jar. Felicetti then asked who had finished IN a jar of peanut butter, and Reddick mentioned not crunchy because he didn’t want to get the peanuts stuck in his penis hole because the body needs to fight off foreign objects that enter it. All of this was over the course of about 3 minutes. And I was almost sick from laughing.
Bowling for Soup – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Emily’ was the next song that was played, as Reddick mentioned how this song was about his ex-girlfriend, and that since he wrote this track he’s been married three times. Reddick then got a bit sentimental for a second, talking about how after their tours in 2008 and 2014, they always wanted to come back, and were actively planning a tour for 2020 before the pandemic shut the world down. But over the last few years, Australia’s streaming numbers for the band have been crazy and we sit at number 4th in the world behind the United States, United Kingdom, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reddick mentioned how their 2009 record Sorry for Partyin’ was the album they thought would do massive things for them, but it ended up getting them dropped from their label. This led into ‘I Don’t Wish You Were Dead Anymore’.
Bowling for Soup – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Punk Rock 101’ got the crowd their flash photography opportunity, as is tradition, and Reddick asked for the crowd to give the band a round of applause for playing music. An acoustic guitar was brought on stage, as the mood shifted into Reddick talking about his issues with mental health as an adult, and how he is a massive advocate for people seeking mental health treatment when they need it. It led to a touching performance of the track ‘Turbulance’, before drummer Gary Wiseman and Felicetti returned for the track ‘Two-Seater’, which felt like a massive deep cut to perform live. Reddick then shouted for someone from the crowd to come up on stage, before having a joke at Frank Turner already having left the building to get snug and comfy for the early flight tomorrow and “was probably ordering room service right now”.
Bowling for Soup – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
We then had Reddick introduce the theme song to the greatest cartoon of all time, as they played ‘Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day’, and Austin finally joined them on stage for the next song. While Austin was being set up, Reddick and Felicetti told a story about how they got in trouble at Good Things for smoking weed watching Korn from side of stage, and how Good Things was actually the first time they met Austin, who got up and played the next song with them at Good Things too, which ended up being ‘1985’. I love this song, and it was in my karaoke rotation when I used to do it, but the track is normally their closing number and I was a little sad I didn’t get to hear my favourite song. But after the track finished, they didn’t leave. Instead, they ripped out about five minutes of stand up, which involved Wiseman telling us the same joke Jaret told us, but with a bigger laugh. Then, they played one more song, which was my favourite song, ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’. Fun fake out ending, and three insane sets from three very unique bands, proving without a shadow of a doubt, this tour while on paper might seem weird, it was the perfect storm to create a brilliant night.
