Live Review: Simple Plan

                                                                             Photo credit: Jared Van Earle

04 October 2011

by Poppy Reid

Saturday October 1
Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW

Simple Plan fans are an impudent bunch, when Sydney’s Enmore Theatre filled with impatient, panda-eyed zealots sporting the routine side fringe, Converse kicks and even a few rat-tail haircuts, we all knew exactly what we were in for.

One and a half hours later, the crowd departs – shocked, baffled, jubilant, slightly deaf, but wanting to experience it all over again.

The French-Canadian’s Australian tour may have been to promote their punny fourth record, Get Your Heart On but the five-piece wreaked havoc as they not only took us back through over a decade’s worth of pop punk gems but also showed us they hold more sexual frustration than half a Viagra pill.

Opening with the band’s breakout single Shut Up their plaudits screamed mercilessly while their chaperones covered their ears; swiftly followed by latest single Can’t Keep My Hands Off You, only a select few looked disappointed that Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo didn’t make a physical cameo as most in the theatre weren’t even old enough to care who he is.

“I want you to leave here feeling like you are part of the band,” said frontman Pierre Bouvier before Addicted. As guitarist Jeff Stinco sucked on a gobstopper through pelvic thrusts and bassist Dave Desrosiers and rhythm guitarist Sebastian Lefebvre scissor-kicked through an array of different sized punk jumps, it was clear they loved a bit of overplay; Simple Plan were like The Wiggles for tweens – only on heat.

:: View all the live shots from the night here.

After confessing he thought the Australian accent was hot and kissed his own muscles in jest, Bouvier belted out what should be the band’s next single, You Suck At Love. Their sound has remained unchanged since 1999, and with deafening screams to have their babies, that’s exactly the way the crowd want things to stay. Bouvier dedicated Thank You to their support act’s frontwoman, Jenna McDougall before asking for a circle pit during Your Love Is A Lie, the crowd awkwardly obliged but went straight back into their safe jumps when they thought he wasn’t looking. The sound through this track was terrible with Bouvier changing mics and struggling to hear himself through following tracks Astronaut and Summer Paradise, perhaps in an effort to distract the audience, he stood behind Stinco and simulated pelvic gyrations – most forgot about any sound issues from this point on. Lefebvre helped drummer Chuck Comeau with percussion on a road case for Summer Paradise, and when he was done, rubbed the drumstick on his crotch before throwing it to a screaming tween.

“Who will let me stay at their house?” Bouvier shouted.

Simple Plan then treated us to a mash up of cover tracks from Cee Lo Green to Jason Derulo to Pink before inviting Tonight Alive’s Jenna McDougall onstage to stand in for Natasha Beddingfield for Jet Lag.

Bouvier’s between track banter for final tracks Welcome To My Life, and I’d Do Anything consisted predominantly of him trying his darnedest to get Stinco laid with comments about his sexual health and desperate availability. Desrosiers even revealed he’d “had sex for three hours once.”

Cringing parents exhaled a collective sigh of relief after the four-song encore (Loser Of The Year, I’m Just A Kid, Everytime and Perfect); they led their minors through the doors and prayed they were too innocent to comprehend the plethora of sexual innuendos and blatant titillation that just took place.

:: Read our review of Get Your Heart On here.