Review: Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls at Metropolis Fremantle

Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls at Metropolis Fremantle
w/ Talk Heavy
Monday, May 11, 2026

Sometimes a band doesn’t have to be edgy cool, undiscovered cool, or sophisticated cool. Sometimes they can just be the cheesy, dorky, fun kind of cool.

That was the order of the day when Texas pop-punks Bowling for Soup and English troubadour Frank Turner and his Sleeping Souls rolled into Metros Freo on Monday night.

Coming through the venue’s neon hexagon tunnel, it was instantly clear what kind of crowd the double-act had drawn: average age: 44, unkempt beards, flannelette shirts, American sport jerseys and black skinny jeans. Yep, this was a ’00s pop-punk gig.

Out of Brisbane, Talk Heavy got the night going with a sound that carried a grittier edge than Frank Turner and a faster pace than Bowling for Soup. Formed in early 2022 and scoring a BIGSOUND slot later that same year—a fast track by anyone’s measure—the band only have singles to their name so far, so landing a support slot for these big bands maybe says more about them than first meets the eye. Their latest single, Wedding Bands, has a Slowly Slowly/Yours Truly feel to it, capturing a pop-punk emo sound that can feel a little predictable, but with a crowd like this, nostalgia was more than enough to carry it over the line.

Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls followed with an entertaining set that occasionally veered into unexpected territory. At times the songs drifted between sea shanties, Green Day-style punk and even Irish folk territory—even though they were English. Turner led the charge from centre stage, flanked on one side by a tiny electric mandolin and on the other by a leather-cuffed bassist whose unhinged strumming style drove the songs forward.

It wasn’t exactly the kind of music to incite a riot, making the ‘circle pit’ moment all the more amusing. Frank, in his Nike cushioned sneakers, goes, “So I’m gonna talk you through this, create a circle and walk slowly around the outside, as slow as a grandma.” It was cringy, but also kind of wholesome. He then covered Walk the Line, and BFS singer Jaret Reddick came out to play harmonica, which was a sweet moment between two acts who clearly actually like each other. Girl From the Record Shop had a very McFly feel to it before Turner prepared the crowd for a “wall of hugs” instead of a death wall.

Turner spoke openly about anxiety and mental health as a preamble to the calming Haven’t Been Doing So Well before picking the vibe back up on Four Simple Words. He parted with the closing words, “If you’re here with a faded patch and jet-black hair not dancing around thinking you’re too cool, well, you’re at a Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner gig. The cool train’s already left.” Hoots and cheers ensued.

Bowling for Soup arrived to their own chant, led by Jaret Reddick, whose comical expressions and cartoonishly high-pitched voice gave strong Eric Cartman / Jack Black super-character vibes. Ray-Bans across the board, a pick stuck to Jaret’s forehead, and the buckled-knee emo stance from the bassist made it feel like a time warp.

They opened with Almost before Reddick called out to the sound guy to tweak his guitar monitor, getting a cheer from the crowd. “You guys will cheer for anything,” he deadpanned. “That was the lamest thing to cheer for.” Then it was straight into High School Never Ends and then, almost offended by their own productivity, “We just played two songs in a row?! We’re not fucking them.” Boyishly comical.

Before referring to Freo as “Froyo”, he compared their hometown Texas to Australia in that “everyone’s attractive, everyone’s nice…. and that’s where the similarities end” before launching into Ohio (Come Back to Texas) with some hand waving and spirit fingers. The real surprise was how many people were singing along. Every single word. These were not mere casual fans; these were lifers. It was the kind of all-in crowd enthusiasm you’d only expect from Swifties.

The ‘shoey’ request chant throughout the night got a pouty Reddick sitting down on a speaker with a beer going, “We can wait”, like a disappointed school teacher. At one point a guy offered up his Converse, and Reddick’s counter was to piss in it and make him do a “shoe-pee” instead. This became its own narrative for the night, never resolved or fully put to rest.

It was just another example of the humour that seems to follow BFS wherever they go. The Stacy’s Mom lore is an example of this. Back in the day people confused it as a BFS song, and BFS faced years of people requesting it at their live shows, eventually recording their own cover of the track and releasing it as a B-side to their single I’ve Never Done Anything Like This in 2011. Bassist Rob Felicetti then stepped up for lead vocals on the next track before things morphed into a “musically enhanced photo opportunity”—a staged group photo moment that was strange but also just very American. Girl All the Bad Guys Want into Trucker Hat got a different run order to the rest of the tour, and the energy kept climbing for it.

They closed on 1985 and you could feel it. The slight rush, the look of a band who have played that song a thousand times and know they have to play it a thousand more. The crowd lost it anyway, singing every word back, that same lifelong commitment carrying right through to the end.

Yes, there were moments of cringe throughout, but none of it mattered. This wasn’t a cool gig. It was a fun one, and sometimes that’s the better choice.

MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES

Photos by Mikaela James