It’s been 16 years since Simple Plan burst onto the music scene and released their debut album “No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls” and to celebrate reaching this milestone the band have decided to hit the road and play the album in its angsty entirety. With the sound of sirens announcing their arrival they ran onto the stage to an excited Brisbane crowd who packed Eatons Hill for a nostalgic evening of pop-punk memories. Launching straight into “I’d Do Anything” they instantly had everyone transported back to 2002 when they were singing every lyric loud in their bedroom in rebellion to their parents. Quickly thanking the crowd for spending the night with them, lead singer Pierre Bouvier explained how they were going to play every song from the album in order and would need everyone’s participation. Obviously the crowd quickly agreed and excitingly jumped along to “The Worst Day Ever”, “You Don’t Mean Anything” and the epic “Addicted”. What was immediately impressive was the way they effortlessly interacted with the crowd with their tongue in cheek humour and crowd-singalong’s that didn’t seem gimmicky. During “One Day” they threw some beach balls into the crowd to help encourage the party vibe that was already in full swing. Before they wrapped up the album portion of the show they played the ridiculously catchy B-side “Grow Up” which they dedicated to their hardcore fans. Halfway during this song Pierre decided to swap musical duties with drummer Chuck Comeau for a cool little moment which ended with Chuck crowd surfing during the final chorus. Obviously one of the biggest singalongs of the night came during the reflective “Perfect” which had everyone feeling extra nostalgic and reliving their emotional teen days. After exiting the stage they returned for an encore of their hits and fan favourites which they kicked off with “Shut Up”. They continued the throwback vibes with “Summer Paradise”, “Jet Lag” which they were joined by Erin from support band Stateside and then Pierre ran through the crowd to the back of the venue for an intimate performance of “Crazy”. New single “Boom” saw confetti filling the venue while the absolute anthem “Welcome To My Life” perfectly closed the show. Even 15 years later Simple Plan are still well and truly on top of their game with one of the tightest pop-punk live shows Australia has seen in a long time. The show’s concept with playing their first album in it’s entirety followed by a greatest hits set was really cool and really catered for the long term fans who have been supporting the band for 16 years. Their crowd interaction is on a whole different level and no matter where you were standing in the venue you felt like you were apart of the show and that’s an incredible feat.
Check out the photo galley from The Raveyard Photography
Photos by Hannah Dodd