We’re just days away from the very exciting long-awaited Simple Plan tour, which will celebrate 15 years since the release of the band’s debut album ‘No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls’, which came out on March 19th 2002. The tour will kick off on March 10th in New York City, after which the band will head back to their homeland Canada for a short TOFTT tour. And after a short trip to Disney, Simple Plan will resume the NPNHJB tour back in the U.S. right on the anniversary day – March 19th.
So what sorts of things could we possibly forward to on this special tour?
Simple Plan have already confirmed that they are indeed working on some special merch for the anniversary tour. Whether this means we might look forward to some old designs or whether they will have some modern twist to it – all that’s certain is that we definitely have lots to be excited about.
Plus, Patrick Langlois, Simple Plan’s former merch guy, also teased a number of times in the past few months that he might make an appearance on this tour for old time’s sake. Now, we’re certain that doesn’t mean you will see Patrick selling merch at every show (that’s still Sim’s job after all) given his work at Radio Energie in Montreal but who knows where or when he could pop up?
Speaking of clothing, this brings us to the most known brand ever to be associated with Simple Plan – Role Model Clothing [read more about it here]. Patrick has previously explained that the founding trio (Patrick, Chuck and Pierre) do not have the rights to the name anymore, so that could potentially be a bit of an obstacle when it comes to actually selling RMC at shows, but the band has been quoted a couple times recently that they might dig into their closets and perhaps wear some old RMC t-shirts on stage, just like they used to in the No Pads era.
That leads us to another topic – the overall style of the early 2000s. You know: David’s eyeliner and pink t-shirts (also his zebra rug!), Chuck’s spiky hair, Seb’s backwards hats, Pierre’s bleached hair, and all of the guys’ dickies shorts… At least some if not all of those should make an appearance on this tour. Not sure if it actually will (as the decision lies solely on the guys) but wouldn’t some of it just make everything so much better?
As per usual, Simple Plan’s hardcore fans, who are a part of their SP Crew fanclub can get access to the band’s soundcheck before the shows. And there’s only one No Pads soundcheck that comes immediately to mind… Fancy a repeat of this? :)
But let’s be honest: it’s not just the merch or the vibe of the beginning of the 21st century that we’re looking forward to on this tour: it’s mostly the setlist. The band has previously confirmed that the setlist for the NPNHJB tour will consist of the whole NPNHJB album played back to back, after which the band will come back to perform some of their other greatest hits from the rest of their music catalogue.
Good news is that besides that we will definitely be also getting some additional bonus tracks on the NPNHJB setlist. Since the band has previously played ‘What’s New Scooby Doo?’ on their U.S. tour last fall – to a great response from their fans, might I add – it’s almost certain that they will include this song on the NPNHJB setlist as well. Then there’s the question of b-sides. One that has already been sort of confirmed is ‘Vacation’, which Pierre (unwillingly?) teased in one of his Instagram Stories last week, when the band rehearsed for the NPNHJB tour in Montreal. It’s possible that the band may use the b-sides (such as ‘Grow Up’ or ‘One By One’) as the interchangeable songs on this tour, which would mean that fans in one city could hear one, while fans in another might get to hear another. That would definitely give the setlist a bit of a spark and it would also be much more exciting for the fans, who are planning to attend more than one show.
And finally there’s the question of covers: the fans are already used to Simple Plan performing a “party medley” at each of their shows, which is a mix of 2-3 covers, usually from pop music (e.g. the TOFTT tour introduced the covers of ‘Uptown Funk’ and ‘Can’t Feel My Face’). Back in the old days, Simple Plan also played a number of covers – and even recorded some of them as b-sides. You may recall their versions of ‘American Jesus’ (originally by Bad Religion), ‘Happy Together’ (originally by The Turtles) or ‘Surrender’ (originally by Cheap Trick). Whether the band plans to include these classic covers to their setlists as well is however still a secret – but they could easily be added to a show every once in a while, just like the other No Pads b-sides.
Overall, the excitement for this particular tour is very real to say the least. Many fans who have not been up-to-date with Simple Plan’s latest releases are coming to see their shows to re-live their youth and given that pop-punk is currently making a comeback with many old-school bands such as Good Charlotte, Green Day or Blink-182 releasing new records, it’s a great time for Simple Plan to go and bring back some nostalgia of their own.
Make sure to get your tickets as soon as you can – the tour in the U.S. is very close to being sold out and Europe, the follow-up to the NPNHJB tour in May/June, is also getting there. You can check out all the upcoming dates in the Tour section.
