Photos by Sue Sadzak
Saturday night’s sold out show was all full of nostalgia and celebration as Simple Plan brought their No Pads, No Helmets…. Just Balls 15th Anniversary Tour to The Danforth Music Hall.
As 1,500 eager fans awaited the Montreal pop punk band, it was up to the three opening acts to set the energy level for the evening. The Bottom Line who are an independent band that hails from the U.K. took to the stage first; to play songs from their latest EP “I Still Hate You”. The band was beyond ecstatic not only be apart of this tour, but to be playing in Toronto for the very first time in their careers. They were a very engaging and exciting group to watch. They were very authentic and embodied everything I love about pop punk music. From the crowd interaction to heavy hitting songs that got the crowd to mosh a little bit, The Bottom Line was a wonderful addition to this tour. My only hope is that they gain some buzz from this tour and continue to prosper because the world definitely needs more new and fresh pop punk bands like them.
Courage My Love took the stage quickly after leaving not much time in-between for the crowd’s energy to die. My heart fluttered a bit at the sight of a pop punk band that was female led. With heavy hitting bass and drums, that was balanced out by synthesizers made me an instant fan by the time their first song “Animal Heart” was completed. Lead singer Mercedes Arn-Horn displayed so much emotion in her performance that you could feel everything she was going through song-by-song, and it hit you like a ton of bricks, especially during “Never Gonna Change”. The interaction between herself and bass guitarist Brandon Lockwood was captivating; they bounced off each other so well and were constantly “rocking” out while they played together. I spent the majority of the set being completely enamored by Phoenix Arn-Horn, watching her drum was quite marvelous. She also has a wonderful voice that compliments her sisters beautiful. When their set concluded, I was left wanting to hear every single song one more time.
The special guests for the evening was Not By Choice who reunited for one night only, thanks to Simple Plan. The last time the two bands hit the road together was 12 years ago, and as the band took to the stage on Saturday night lead singer Mike Bilcox did not shy away from the fact that it had been a long time. For a band that has not actively played music live for years, they didn’t miss a beat. There were pockets of fans throughout The Danforth singing along to every word. You could tell that the band was having a blast and the audience was feeding off of their excitement. One thing that I noticed right away was a couple of really small children sitting on the shoulders of a loved one clapping along. As the night progressed we found out that those were the bands children, which made everything that much better. Saturday evening also happened to be the anniversary of the day their very first studio album “Maybe One Day” dropped back in 2002. The evening was truly something special to be a part of.
The stage crew moved at what felt like warp speed to get everything set up for the main event. As the lights dimmed, a red flashing light began; as did the piercing screams of a sold-out crowd. From out of the gate with “I’d Do Anything” the roars of the crowd almost overpowered Pierre Bouiver’s lead vocals. This crowd had been ready for hours, but for some the experience of seeing this band perform had been building for years. They fired off the first three tracks of the album pretty quickly before getting down to the crowd interacting, which was pretty incredible all night. Bouvier welcomed and thanked everyone for being there, and mentioned that even know they were from Montreal, Toronto did have a very special place in their hearts and it felt like a part of home.
He was very quick to point out how many young people were in the audience, most of us were under the age of 10 when No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls dropped. He envisioned us asking our parents for the album and them rejecting the idea because of inappropriate lyrics, which is exactly what went down. This bit of crowd banter perfectly led into “I’m Just A Kid” which was probably the most decorated and well-known song off the album (along with “Addicted”), outside of their hardcore fans. Hearing the song live brought back a lot of feelings of how much animosity you have built up inside during elementary / middle school.
Sunday happened to be drummer Chuck Comeau’s 38th birthday, so the rest of the boys let him live out his dream by being a lead singer. He talked with the crowd about how much he loves his bandmates who are like his brothers and how thankful he was for the fan support. He sang part of “Grow Up” which was a bonus track on the album, while Pierre backed him on the drums. Comeau asked if Pierre could show the crowd a little more of his drumming abilities and he did not disappoint.
For the final song off the album, Bouiver stood in the middle of the stage with an acoustic guitar and the cellphone flashlights of 1,500 people illuminating the venue as he sang “Perfect”. This is personally one of my favourite songs off of the album; so being able to see the beginning of the song performed acoustically was like a dream. The crowd sang along to every word with so much emotion and passion, that there was no doubt in my mind that the majority of the crowd found similar connections within the lyrics. With only 11 songs on the original album, the evening felt like it was coming to a close rather prematurely. The cheers for Simple Plan in unison echoed off the walls in the Danforth Music Hall, which led the band to return for a 7-song encore that highlighted from their last four studio albums including: “Shut Up, Jump, Boom, Jet Lag, Summer Paradise and Crazy.”
Before closing out the show with an emotional performance of “Welcome To My Life”, Bouvier had addressed that someone was missing on that stage, who was still very much a part of the band but needed to take a break, to get better. That person was original member and bassist David Desrosiers who has been battling depression for the better part of his life. With the loss of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington only a few months ago, the light has really been shed on mental health within the music industry even more now than ever before.
We wish David all the best and hope to see him back with Simple Plan in the future.
