Wednesday, April 5 started as an average day that ended in a mess of sweaty hair and bruised arms for a few hundred people that got tickets to the Simple Plan show at The Rave! Simple Plan as many of us may remember was the soundtrack to our childhoods with songs like “Perfect”, “Welcome to my life” and “I’m Just a Kid”. This tour marks 15 years since their first album, No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls. They played the entire album in order, with a few of our other favorites thrown into the mix.
The show started off with an up and coming band, Seaway who is with Pure Noise Records. Before the show I already knew I was going to enjoy their set (Unfortunately was only 25 minutes long!) because they have a single on the “Pop Punk’s Not Dead” playlist on Spotify. They did not disappoint at all opening with the single, “Best Mistake”. This was a smart move on their part because it gave the audience a moment to realize that they had heard them before. Followed up with my other favorites of Trick (So Sweet) and Goon, it was not a set you wanted to miss.
The second band of the night that amped up the crowd *almost* as much as Simple Plan was Set It Off (SIO)! I had never heard any of their music
prior to the concert and I felt that it was more on the Pop side of the Pop-Punk/Rock genre. A good example to compare them to would be The Cab.Similar sound, but SIO is more rock than The Cab. Some of my favorite songs of their set would have to be Why Worry and Something New. Why Worry has a catchy beat that is easy to dance to and Something New is more of a ballad; something you might quote an awesome Instagram post with.
Finally – SIMPLE PLAN. Honestly, they seem to be just one great 5-piece family on stage. The band has stayed together for the last 15 years without changing a single member. Just imagine that, staying friends with 4 of your closest high school friends as you tour the world playing the music you created in someone’s garage. I thought that since it was THE Simple Plan that they would have had some crazy laser light show, or some huge screens half blinding the crowd, luckily I was wrong. The staging was kept very simple with normal lighting. With comments from lead singer Pierre like “(Chuck) is the hardest hitting drummer in the music industry” and “our secret weapon Jeff on the guitar” you could tell that they had a great mutual friendship. The drummer Chuck even switched place with Pierre for a minute and Pierre took his place on the drums! They made the night about nostalgia and reconnecting to the music of our youth and I feel that just made the night even more memorable. If there was one thing I could have changed it would have been to add some of their new songs off of the newest album, “Taking One For The Team” because that album deserves to be listened to a lot more than I believe it is right now. My favorite song off that album right now is Opinion Overload!
If you couldn’t make it out – it’s okay! Simple Plan gave everyone the feeling that they aren’t done yet and if this new album gives any clue as to where their music is going, I CAN’T WAIT!
Spotify Playlist “Pop Punk’s Not Dead” link.
Link to “Taking One For The Team” album.