Bowling For Soup • Ballyhoo! • September 25, 2026 • The Union Events Center
Reviewed and Photographed by Mike Ferguson
This one was basically a giant dose of nostalgia mixed with one of my favorite bands, and The Union was a great place for it.
I really like The Union for shows like this. It’s big enough that you get the energy of a legit concert, but it still feels a lot more intimate than an arena. You’re close to the stage, the crowd feels packed in around you, and with bands like Ballyhoo! and Bowling For Soup, that kind of setting just works. The whole night had that sweaty, loud, everybody-singing-along kind of concert energy that makes a smaller venue so much fun.
Ballyhoo!
I’ve seen Ballyhoo! before, and they’re just ridiculously good live. They packed a lot into their set with songs like “Bad Summer,” “I Don’t Wanna Go,” “Walk Away,” “Social Drinker,” and “The Struggle,” plus a cover of blink-182’s “Dammit.” Their mix of reggae, punk, and rock is right up my alley, and they have the kind of live energy that immediately gets the room moving. I honestly could have watched them play a full headlining set and been completely happy.
Then Bowling For Soup came out and basically turned The Union into one giant early-2000s singalong.
Bowling For Soup
“Almost,” “Ohio,” “Emily,” “The Bitch Song,” “High School Never Ends,” “Punk Rock 101,” and “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” all made the set, before they came back out for “Teenage Dirtbag” and “1985.” There were so many songs where it felt like basically the entire room knew every word.
One of the best parts of their set, though, was everything between the songs. They were constantly joking around, messing with each other, talking to the crowd, and just generally not taking themselves too seriously. At times it almost felt like half concert, half comedy show, and it made the whole thing feel a lot more personal than just watching a band run through their hits.
There was also just something fun about looking around the room and realizing how many people were there for the exact same reason: to scream along to songs we’ve been listening to for 20-plus years. It was nostalgic without feeling like some cheesy nostalgia tour. The songs still hit, the band was clearly having fun, and the crowd absolutely bought into it.
Ballyhoo! was probably still the highlight of the night for me because, well, it’s Ballyhoo!, but Bowling For Soup was an absolute blast.
Great venue, great crowd, two really fun sets, and one of those concerts where you leave with your voice a little more gone than when you walked in.