On Wednesday, February 7th, Simple Plan played at De Roma in Antwerp. They were accompanied by 3 incredible support acts: Air Yel, State Champs and Mayday Parade. Between sets, a QR code could be seen on the back screen. If you scanned this and checked in you had the chance to win tickets to the VIP pizza after-party with Simple Plan.
Doors opened at 19:15 and Air Yel started just 5 minutes later. It was just her on stage, with a guitar in hand for some songs. Even though the singer only has 4 released songs, her short 20-minute set was a good opener of the night. She opened up her set with the unreleased song ‘Drive Me Home’. After that, she played a mashup of ‘Still Into You’ by Paramore and ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay, which delighted the audience. Air Yel was wearing a brace on her right foot, but that did not stop her from running and jumping around the stage. She announced that she would be hanging out near the merch after the show. After she had left the stage, she came running back to take a picture with the crowd.
After a short 5-minute break it was time for State Champs to take the stage. Their energy was through the roof and the whole band was giving it their all. Singer Derek DiScanio was jumping around and doing high kicks. Quite a few people knew the lyrics to their songs and anyone who didn’t was happily vibing along. Their 40-minute set was filled with great songs, such as ‘Mine Is Gold’ and ‘Outta My Head’. For the song ‘Fake It’, the band encouraged the crowd to clap along and so they did. One of their most well-known songs, ‘Secrets’, got the crowd going crazy, and a bigger part of the audience could sing along. Before getting into their last song, Derek announced they would be working on a brand new album after this tour and then come back for a headline tour. They ended their set with ‘Everybody But You’.
The last support for the night was Mayday Parade. Initially, only singer Derek Sanders walked out on stage to start their set with ‘Oh Well, Oh Well’. As the song progressed, the remaining members of the band joined him on stage. Just like State Champs, the band was very energetically jumping and spinning around. Derek was going around the stage barefoot, like he does for a lot of their shows. For the song ‘Piece Of Your Heart’, Derek played the acoustic guitar. At the start of the song, they made the crowd practice the “oooh, ooh, oohs” that came back later in the song. “Thanks for supporting live music and rock and roll” is what Derek said before playing their last two songs ‘Jersey’ and ‘Jamie All Over’.
While waiting for Simple Plan they made sure we would not get bored. The songs playing between sets fit perfectly with the audience that was attending. Songs such as ‘All The Small Things’ by Blink-182, ‘The Anthem’ by Good Charlotte and ‘Last Resort’ by Papa Roach all got the crowd screaming along to the lyrics.
The lights dimmed down and the theme from Star Wars was playing while the band walked out onto stage. The atmosphere of the entire evening was already charged with energy, but Simple Plan heightened it even further. Starting their set with ‘I’d Do Anything’ set the tone for the night. After ‘Your Love Is A Lie’, singer Pierre Bouvier gave a shout-out to guitarist Jeff Stinco, and said that he “can’t showcase his talent in Simple Plan”. This was the cue for Jeff to take the front of the stage and play a guitar solo showcasing all his skills. During the performance of ‘Summer Paradise’, large beach balls were tossed into the crowd, enhancing the beach-themed ambience, while sunset scenes were vividly displayed on their LED screens.
Even though Simple Plan has enough songs to fill hours, they played some fun mashups for us. The first one included ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth, ‘Sk8er Boi’ by Avril Lavigne, and ‘Mr. Brightside’ by The Killers. Later in the encore there was a mashup of their own songs ‘Crazy’, ‘Perfect World’, ‘Save You’ and ‘This Song Saved My Life’. One thing about Simple Plan shows is that no matter how little or many songs you know, they always make sure you have a great time. For ‘What’s New Scooby Doo’, fans dressed in Scooby Doo costumes were invited up on stage. Both Derek from State Champs and Derek from Mayday Parade came out during ‘Where I Belong’.
The encore started with ‘Jet Lag’, featuring vocals from Air Yel. During ‘I’m Just A Kid’, drummer Chuck Comeau left his usual spot and went up to the front. They wanted to switch it up, so Pierre sat behind the drums. Chuck made it clear he wasn’t going to sing, but he was eager to crowd surf and high-five everyone along the way. He dove into the crowd and Ryan Scott Graham from State Champs ran out to sing the song. They wrapped up their set with two slower songs, ‘Untitled’ and ‘Perfect’, providing a perfect (excuse the pun) conclusion to the night.
