Back in 2009 we started this tradition on SimplePlan.cz to recap the entire past year and remind ourselves of all the good and bad that has happened over the course of it. And here we are, 13 years later, still recapping year after year: this time around the year of 2022, which was quite significant for Simple Plan: they released their first album as an independent band as well as the first album as a four-piece group, who finally managed to properly tour outside North America ever since the pandemic. How they did during the entire year? Let’s see!
You can check out all the past reviews from 2009 later on over here – 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 – but right now, let’s go ahead, take a deep breath and have a look at everything that happened in 2022!
At the end of 2021, right after our last review was posted, Simple Plan still managed to do a one major thing: release the first official music video from their (then) upcoming album – ‘The Antidote’ and this way kicking off the new year with a brand new single and a hit. In January, the ghost of the pandemic has striked again and reminded up that it is still not fully over – Simple Plan’s first post-covid Canadian tour with The Offspring, which was supposed to take place in the beginning of the year unfortunately had to be canceled (but wait, it gets better from then!).
The promo mechanism of the new Simple Plan album started picking up speed in February, when a new collaboration for the album has been announced – Simple Plan and Sum 41 finally decided to bury the hatchet of past childish disagreements and for the first time worked together on a new song. The music video for ‘Ruin My Life’ feat. Deryck Whibley was released on February 18th and the bands also revealed the plans of upcoming tours in the U.S. and Europe together (with Simple Plan as the special guest) for a good half of the year.
In March, Simple Plan started giving us first hints about the upcoming album – the fans finally got to learn its title – ‘Harder Than It Looks’, its release date, the album’s artwork and also further down the road the tracklist. On March 16th the band also surprised us with another new song from the album – ‘Congratulations’.
The band finally set off on tour in April, when they visited Mexico. Simple Plan also released a new music video this month for ‘Wake Me Up When This Nightmare’s Over’, the concept of which was to shine a light on the terrible situation in Ukraine and actually used all Ukrainian cast & crew to make the final video. All proceeds from the viewings of the video on YouTube were donated to UNICEF to help children affected by this war.
The end of April but mostly the month of May signified the first part of the Sum 41 and Simple Plan ‘Blame Canada’ tour across the United States, where the U.S. fans first got to hear some of the new songs and also see Chuck crowdsurf in his own ‘post-pandemic way’. Unfortunately this tour didn’t go exactly according to plan as some members of the Sum 41 camp caught covid right before Simple Plan were supposed to celebrate the release of their new album at a show in New York City, however that show and a few others had to be postponed and Simple Plan’s album ‘Harder Than It Looks’ came out on May 6th without the originally planned celebrations.
In June, Simple Plan returned to Disney World for their annual concert gigs, which have been postponed multiple times because of covid in the previous two years. Finally, the guys got to take their children with them to Florida again to enjoy their dads’ music as well as the fun activities the park offers. Over the summer, the band returned to Canada for a few festivals and then hopped back on the second part of the Blame Canada tour with Sum 41 in the U.S. finishing it up at the end of August.
One of Simple Plan’s biggest hit to date, Summer Paradise got certified silver in the United Kingdom in September and this only welcomed the band to Europe even better for their first post-pandemic European tour, which kicked off at the end of the month – once again joining Sum 41 as a guest, but this time with a new title of the tour – ‘Does This Look All Killer No Filler’. During this tour Simple Plan also made a stop in the Czech Republic, where SimplePlan.cz had the honor to interview Chuck again (you can watch the interview here).
And finally at the end of October, the long-planned Simple Plan and The Offspring tour finally brought these two bands back to Canada, where they stayed throughout all of November. During that month, Simple Plan also released a new version of ‘I’m Just A Kid’ feat. the singer LOLO as well as an accompanying video for it. The band then finally got to have some well-deserved rest in December, when they headed off back home to spend some time with their families and loved ones.
As of right now it seems that next year will finally be the year when Simple Plan will get to go out back on tour on their own, finally delivering the ‘Harder Than It Looks’ tour to their fans as a headlining act.
Firstly, the band is set out to go to South East Asia in March for the ‘Harder Than It Looks’ tour that has only recently been announced. In June, Simple Plan will head back to Europe for the festival season, which so far includes destinations such as the UK, France, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic with a one-off own show in Switzerland. But that won’t be all for SP when it comes to festivals. Canadian fans can also already look forward to them play in their country at a number of festivals in July. And finally, the only date we know about in the second half of 2023 is the already sold-out While We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, where Simple Plan will get to perform in October.
Besides that there are many indications that Simple Plan might also be planning some more tours during the year – most probably in South America and Australia, where they haven’t toured yet on this tour cycle. However given that the HTIL tour only seems to be starting now, all places which SP have toured in 2022 could also be contenders for their own HTIL tour in the future. We shall see what the year brings.
As always, we’ll keep you updated!
Have a wonderful end of 2022 and we’ll see you in 2023!
