Bowling For Soup/Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls/American Hi-Fi - Lincoln Castle, Lincoln Saturday, June 27th, 2026
Set List: Surround/Scar/The Breakup Song/Hi-Fi Killer/Another Perfect Day/The Geeks Get the Girls/The Art of Losing/Flavor of the Weak.
This was American Hi-Fi's first UK appearance in over 10 years and happened to be their 25 Anniversary as a band! They comprise of Stacy Jones (Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Jamie Arentzen (Lead Guitar), Drew Parsons (Bass Guitar) & Brian Nolan (Drums).
To be honest, I only knew one or two of their songs and even those were a distant memory. From the very first track, I was surprised by just how energetic they were on stage. It was almost impossible to keep up with them while taking photos.
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Despite all the running around, the music was flawless. Even though I wasn't familiar with many of the songs the crowd clearly was, singing along in full voice from start to finish. It was the perfect way to kick off the event and created a real party atmosphere kinda feeling. What a great start to the day.
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Set List: I Still Believe/Try This At Home/Never Mind The Back Problems/Photosynthesis/Girl From The Record Shop/1933/No Thank You For The Music/Wessex Boy, Sailor's Boots/The Way I Tend To Be/The Next Storm/I Am Disappeared/Recovery Letters/Do One/Polaroid Picture/Get Better/Four Simple Words.
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls were up next whose line up is Frank Turner (Lead Vocals/ Acoustic Guitar), Ben Lloyd (Guitar/Mandolin), Tarrant Anderson (Bass), Matt Nasir (Piano/Mandolin) & Callum Green (Drums).
Frank who? I seriously have never heard of this guy. I asked around the crowd and I was told "if I don't like Frank Turner then I am the problem not him". The General Consensus was Everyone likes him. So, not sure what to expect I armed myself with my camera and off we go.
His first words "Hey yay, hey yay" from 'I Still Believe' with the crowd singing louder than before, moving more and dancing away. Frank Turner had arrived and was delivering his Polite Punk Rock to the masses. He moved, smiled and performed with ease. Clearly loving every second of being there.
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It was a surprise to find out he was poorly, suffering and finding it difficult to sing. If this is him at 50% I am going to definitely see him again when he is 100%! He is an outstanding entertainer, owning that stage.
Halfway through he got the crowd to part and get ready for the "Wall of Death!" Really? A wall of death for this performance is a little extreme and out of the ordinary. But he had a twist, “Instead of slamming into each other, I want you all to hug it out!”
I love it, the crowd loved it. This ramped the performance up to another notch as crowd surfers started to appear. But they weren't your normal crowd surfers: children, ladies in sun hats old enough to know better who would never do that sort of thing and me! Yep disabled me decided to get into the fun.
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It was such a family friendly crowd and show that people who would never consider doing a crowd surf were gently lifted up, carried along and gently brought down by the excellent security. Apart from me, they dropped me! But caught me just a split second from disaster and I carried on. (Video of the incident is on my YouTube channel, Dales Rock Interviews).
Frank Turner was excellent joyful, inclusive and wonderfully unexpected even if under the weather. If you get the chance - go see him. You won't regret it.
Set List: Intro/BFS Theme/Almost/High School Never Ends/Emily/Ohio (Come Back To Texas)/Getting Old Sucks (But Everybody's Doing It)/Today Is Gonna Be A Great Day/Punk Rock 101/Stacy's Mom /Scope/ Turbulence/Friends O' Mine/Girl All The Bad Guys Want/The Bitch Song/1985/1985 (Jazz Version).
And now it's time for tonight's headliners, Bowling for soup with a line-up of Jaret Reddick (Lead Vocals/ Guitar), Gary Wiseman (Drums/Percussion) & Rob Felicetti (Bass/Backing Vocals).
I have to say I am a fan. I have loved Bowling For Soup ever since 'Girl All the Bad Guys Want' came out back in 2002. I have been lucky to see them live twice before so I was just a little excited.
Although there is a tinge of sadness that the band is no longer with co-founder Chris Burney. So now a three piece, they marched out with the 'Bowling For Soup chant playing loud, the crowd screaming louder. Jaret and the band went straight into 'Almost' and 'High School Never Ends' after Jaret proudly announced they just played two songs in a row! Dicing with death! The Gig flowed with fun songs and laughs and humour between.
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The biggest laugh came when the ticket for the BFS guitar was drawn and Sheila won! But where was Sheila? She had gone home to watch the England match! She lost out big time! The raffle was re-drawn and the new winner came on stage to receive his New BFS Guitar. Brilliant.
They were brilliant with singing and crowd interaction. Only one small issue though: Jaret and Rob were standing quite far from the front of the stage, meaning people at the left side and the access ramp only had a limited view. If only they, like the bands before, were closer to the edge. But it really is a tiny gripe.
Jaret loved the fact he was performing at a castle and I am sure he will be talking about that for many years to come. It is such an amazing venue and Bowling For Soup didn't disappoint. Singing all the favourites and the 'Phineas And Ferb" theme tune.
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I actually didn't want the show to end. The whole event was amazing. Three fantastic acts and a great location. Bowling For Soup proved once again why the should be on every music fans 'Must See' list.
A brilliant gig.
By Dale Holford