Simple Plan was back in town earlier this week for their “Taking One For The Team” World Tour at The Coliseum, Hard Rock Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa. The tour, named after their 5th studio album, kicked off in Canada in July and Singapore was one of the five lucky Southeast Asian cities in their world tour list.
This was not their first visit to Singapore. They have previously attended music festivals, award shows and also performed their “Take Your Heart On” World Tour back in 2012. From Singapore’s food, cleanliness, the beautiful (swimming) pools and the girls, Lead Singer Pierre Bouvier had nothing but praises about Singapore.
Friends and Band mates for more than 15 years, the quintet is becoming one of the longest-running band with all the original members still together.
The night started with an opening gig by local band The Summer State, who warmed up both the fans and the stage for Simple Plan.
It was all screams and cheers from the crowd (consisting of mainly young adults) when they finally appeared on stage singing “Opinion Overload”, the first song from their latest album.
They brought back many popular pop-punk hits like “I’d Do Anything”, “Welcome To My Life”, “Shut Up” and “Crazy” from the days where there was no Instagram, no Facebook or YouTube. It was amazing to hear the audience (who probably grew up hearing their music) singing the lyrics of these songs out loud.
Top hits like “Jet Lag”, “Jump”, “Boom” and “Your Love is a Lie” were not left out too.
Apart from singing their own songs,they also sang a cover medley featuring “Uptown Funk” and “Can’t Feel My Face”.
Over the years, the band also ventured into other music genres like reggae, singing more lighthearted and feel-good songs like “Singing in the Rain” and “Summer Paradise” where beach balls were tossed around in the audience.
It was easy to forget their age when they sang their first single “I’m Just A Kid”, a song dating way back to 2002. These “kids” in their mid-thirties seem to have never-ending stamina and energy on and off the stage. Fans below the stage were treated with “visits” from Pierre, Guitarists Jeff Stinco, Sebastian Lefebvre and bassist David Desrosiers who ran down a couple of times to greet the crowd. Pierre even made a fan’s childhood dream come true by inviting her up to stage for a hug!
All (if not most) of the songs are self-composed by the band itself. Over the years, they have written many “emo” songs about teenage angst, where most fans probably identified themselves with at some point in their lives. The power of music inspired them to write a song – “This Song Saved My Life” which had been inspired by the fans (via their tweets and comments on social media), written about the fans and for the fans.
The concert ended with Pierre singing (and playing) an acoustic cover of “Perfect” together with the voices and flashlights from the fans. Simple Plan was certainly a crowd-pleaser. They spent their last few minutes on stage throwing “souvenirs” like used towels and opened bottles of water into the screaming crowd. Drummer Chuck Comeau was finally relieved from his drumset duty and came forward to throw the drumsticks (three pairs) into the audience.
Throughout the concert, you can feel that Simple Plan is very grateful, appreciative and thankful to all the support that they have received over the years. They were not trying to put up “just another show”, they wanted to create the performance and memories with all their fans. We hope that it won’t take them another 5 more years to return back to Sunny Singapore.
Article by: Jiayu @ KAvenyou
Photos by: IMCLiveGroup/Marcus Lin and IMCLiveGroup/Rueven Tan
