Simple Plan

Perth may have missed out on the first Australian Vans Warped tour but one band did make the effort to visit our humble abode for an exclusive one off headline show. The last time Simple Plan trekked it to the West Coast was in 2005, eight years ago and it was clear that these French-Canadians prime might have passed them by.

Rewind the years to an age where pop punk was more accepted and the world wasn’t invaded by the alternative fashion driven indie rock scene. This was the outfit that inhabited Challenge Stadium on December 3rd.

A relatively unknown Paramore wannabe group, Tonight Alive, warmed the crowd with lead singer Jenna McDougall’s florescent green hair and accompanied by backward cap band members aching to strum their power chords.

A lesson to be learned by the blossoming singer is to not anticipate the crowd to sing-a-long. Consistently pausing for the mosh to scream the lyrics out, when it was evident not many were able to join in., leaving an abyss of awkward silence.

The moment Pierre Bouvier opened his mouth and released his memorable nasal toned voice it was clear that these bad boys, although aged, still own their pop punk teen angst sound. I’d Do Anything a track from the lads first album No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls opened the show.

Given Simple Plan are not the most skilled in musicality, with what they lacked needed to be made up by gimmicks, crowd flattery, crutch grabbing, a bucket load of repeated ‘woah’ interludes and bass player David Desrosiers’ continuous sexual connotations. Desperate David with who posed a debatable status on his sanity, invited women to shower with him after the show mounting surprised facial expressions from his fellow band members.

Memorable riffs for Addicted, Welcome To My Life, Astronaut, Your Love Is A Lie & Shut Up, Shut Up all induced the punters to applaud and scream in adoration. Lead Jenna McDougall joined SP onstage to sing the Natasha Bedingfield part of Jetlag and displayed her developed upper register. A hacked party medley of cover songs including Move Like Jagger, Dynamite & Sexy and I Know It proved the groups need to beef their performance to keep the crowd happy.

A welcomed encore featured a first time performed acoustic number Lucky One from SP’s new EP The Second Coming. It was a love song which commercial radio will no doubt happily loop till your ears bleed.

Closing on infamous track Perfect this wasn’t a rave worthy show, however for the seasoned fans who grew up on this music, it was an uplifting ride down memory lane.

Published by Drum Media - Perth.