Simple Plan: The Hard As Rock Tour 10/02/2024

Rating: ★★★★★

O2 Academy Glasgow Rating: ★★★★

Where we stayed: Ibis Budget Glasgow (No issues)

SETLIST:

1.  I’d Do Anything
2.  Shut Up!
3.  Jump
4.  You Suck At Love
5.  Your Love Is A Lie
6.  Addicted
7.  Welcome To My Life
8.  Iconic
9.  Summer Paradise
10.  Take My Hand
11.  Astronaut
12.  Million Pictures Of You
13.  Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare’s Over)
14.  All Star / Sk8er Boi / Mr. Brightside (Covers Medley)
15.  What’s New Scooby Doo?
16.  Grow Up / Vacation
17.  Where I Belong (with State Champs & Mayday Parade)
18.  Jet Lag (with AIR YEL) (Encore)
19.  Crazy / Perfect World / Save You / This Song Saved My Life (Simple Plan Medley) (Encore)
20.  I’m Just A Kid (Ryan Scott Graham on vocals) (Encore)
21.  Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me) (Encore)
22.  Perfect (Encore)

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This was definitely one of the most fun concerts I have been to and ranks highly on my list of favourites, overall. Like most people my age, I first became aware of Simple Plan in the early 2000’s when I heard their hit songs ‘I’m Just A Kid’, ‘Welcome To My Life’ and ‘Perfect’. I got back into their music last year when I saw the announcement for this tour, quickly becoming invested in their newer albums. I was mostly looking forward to hearing ‘Summer Paradise’ and ‘Astronaut’ out of all the songs on this setlist, which are both from ‘Get Your Heart On’, released in 2011. Doing a deep-dive of their material last summer was so enjoyable they even ended up in my top three most listened to artists of 2023, according to Spotify Wrapped. I encouraged Paul to come with me as he still has their ‘Still Not Getting Any’ CD from 2004. I showed him Mayday Parade was also on the tour poster and he really likes their song ‘Terrible Things’ but they didn’t perform that one on this occasion. Maybe it is too slow and sad for a Saturday night in Glasgow, when a mosh pit had already opened up by the second act. I thought The O2 Academy was on Sauchiehall Street a few doors down from The Garage but it turned out it had relocated across the river, nearer our hotel. The old building still stands and I thought the boarded-up-graffiti-look was just part of the aesthetic! The actual venue is beautiful inside and out, which made for a much nicer experience than I expected. Paul bought his ticket at a later date, so couldn’t get general admission standing like me and had to settle for an unreserved balcony seat. He ended up being much happier with that arrangement and said he liked having more space, an unobstructed view of the stage and practically a private toilet. I prefer being right in the middle of the action, especially at shows like this where there is so much going on at all times. The VIP guests entered first but I don’t know how many of them there would have been, as some of the meet and greet packages cost almost £200, which I would be reluctant to pay to hang out with my top favourite bands, even if there was pizza involved. After an awkward entry process, where I had to scramble to find a staff member of the same gender to pat me down, I chose to stand in the third row near the centre, which wasn’t bad considering we thought the doors opened at 7pm, when it was actually 6pm.

AIR YEL surprised us at 6:30pm, as we didn’t see her name advertised. I am struggling to find information about her online but she admitted most of us had probably never heard of her and told us she was excited to be opening for bands she has been a big fan of for years. She has a lovely voice and treated us to a few of her original songs, mixing in covers of popular songs such as ‘Still Into You’ by Paramore and ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay, which introduced us to her style of music and warmed up the crowd a bit more. She thanked us for “putting up with” her foot cast, which she explained she was wearing after injuring herself onstage. I hadn’t noticed before she pointed it out, which proves how natural a performer she is. State Champs came on second, which confused a few people in the crowd who were expecting Mayday Parade instead. I think they must switch up the order of the opening acts each night. I felt awkward not recognising any of their songs but enjoyed listening to them for the first time and they had plenty of energy, bounding around and interacting with fans. I had heard of them because they did ‘Where I Belong’ with SP, which they performed together later in the night. They are also performing at Slam Dunk Festival, which I will attend in Hatfield at the end of May. They are clearly confident and respected performers and ploughed through their set, even when they had some issues with the bass drum and a member of Mayday Parade came to their aid mid-song. They gave Cathouse Rock Club in Glasgow a shout-out (which Paul and I went to for the Blink-182 cover band, One Eighty Two) and, more confusingly, confessed their love for Buckfast Tonic Wine, which made everything spin the last time they drank it before performing. I have never tried it but Paul hilariously thought they were talking about Buck’s Fizz, which has barely any alcohol in it. Mayday Parade were also great but I didn’t know their songs well either – just ‘Jamie All Over’, which is their biggest hit. They remind me a little of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and The Wonder Years. Derek Sanders (lead singer) performed barefoot, which was an interesting choice and made the experience feel more carefree and casual. There were a lot of fans wearing their merchandise but it was hard to grasp who had more of the crowd on their side. I think the line-up was brilliant and the opening bands set the tone perfectly for the rest of the night.

Simple Plan came on to the ‘Star Wars’ theme, which both Paul and I appreciated. I also loved the NASA tank top Pierre Bouvier (frontman) was wearing, which complemented the opening musical number. I had a lot of fun photographing the event, as there had obviously been a lot of thought put into the production with the background videos, staging and lighting effects. They opened with ‘I’d Do Anything’, which is another classic song of theirs. The place exploded in colourful confetti as soon as the song was over, which caught us off-guard. I don’t often see confetti at gigs but there was no shortage of it here, with confetti canons going off periodically and ribbons of it getting stuck to the ceiling at one point. PB spoke to the crowd a lot between songs, telling us to follow our dreams before ‘Iconic’ and how cold it is in Canada right now when introducing ‘Summer Paradise’ for a bit of escapism, complete with several giant beach balls which seemed to come out of nowhere. We were batting them around with childlike joy and one lucky member of the crowd caught and deflated a signed one near the end of the song. Paul swore he saw someone else sneakily deflate one to take home, too. I would feel guilty if that was me but I’m sure they have plenty of spares. PB also kept getting interrupted by the crowd shouting the Glasgow-famous chant “Here we, here we, here we f****** go” to build excitement when he was trying to tell a story about the beginning of their career, which made the band shoot bewildered glances at each other before realising it was a positive thing and they weren’t being heckled. SC posted an image of several bottles of Buckfast on Twitter later along with the words of the chant, which I found funny after the confusion had cleared up. It is hard to believe they have never come across the chant before, as I don’t think I have ever gone to a gig in Glasgow without hearing it. Noone knows quite where or when it originated from but it has even made its way up to Inverness. They gave an extremely high energy performance and assured us they love their Scottish fans after every few songs. There were comedic moments as well as more raw and emotional ones where people were tearing up because the songs took them back to their teens and childhoods. A major highlight was the entirety of the nostalgic ‘I’m Just A Kid’, where Ryan Scott Graham from SC took over lead vocals and PB replaced Chuck Comeau on the drums whilst he crowd surfed and high-fived fans. There were a couple of medleys, a quirky segment where fans in Scooby Doo onesies joined the band onstage during ‘What’s New Scooby Doo?’, a stripped back acoustic session featuring beloved oldies and a group photo at the end where you could clamber on to the stage if you wanted to. The night was full of surprises and felt like one big party.

I was disappointed for it to all come to an end, even though my back had started aching from leaning backwards to get a clearer view of the stage the whole time. I scuttled out the side door, looking forward to some fresh air and already reflecting back on how enjoyable the concert was. I kept an eye out for stray guitar picks on the floor as I was exiting but couldn’t see anything through the hundreds of pieces of confetti, which was crazy. The band had thrown several things into the crowd such as the setlists, a sweaty towel and a generous number of drumsticks but I failed to catch any of them. I should have tried harder at PE in school… I was frustrated with myself for forgetting to check out the merch stall but I had already come to the conclusion it would be a bad idea to spend more money than I needed to, as I have about fifty band t-shirts at home. Reuniting with Paul once I was outside proved to be quite a challenge, as I had to fight through streams of people heading in the opposite direction to go home. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt again (which has become a tradition at this point), which helped greatly. We talked about how much we enjoyed the show on the short walk back to the hotel and agreed on almost everything, such as the sound improving as the night went on and how we ended up getting a lot of the same action shots. I was delighted with the setlist and don’t think it could have been much better but found it strange they didn’t include many songs from their newer albums, especially since the tour was presumably named after ‘Harder Than It Looks’ from 2022 and they only did three songs from it. That didn’t bother me as this was my first time seeing them live and most of my favourite songs were included but it is just an observation. Another strange thing I noticed was they also performed at The O2 Academy on the same date (February 10th) in 2020, exactly four years before. That’s a weird coincidence. I was looking up YouTube videos to relive the night but I couldn’t find many videos, sadly. I hope they don’t take so long to come back to the UK next time, as I already know I will be in the pre-sale queue for tickets!

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GALLERY

The venue and queue when we got there

STALLS PHOTOS (ME)

AIR YEL

With her social media handles

State Champs

Action poses

Mayday Parade

Guitar pose

Band shot

‘Star Wars’ intro screen

Simple Plan. After the first confetti explosion

Imagine cleaning this up

They looked like they were enjoying themselves

Sébastien Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco

I want that NASA tank top

‘Summer Paradise’, my favourite

Beach balls!

‘Million Pictures Of You’ with fan photos on the screen

Lead singers in front of their respective band names

Receiving a bunch of applause

‘Jet Lag’ with AIR YEL

CC in the crowd (and security looking on top of things)

Crowd surfing

Another atmospheric shot

Acoustic session

Big finale

BALCONY PHOTOS (PAUL)

We didn’t win the Post Show Pizza Party VIP Package

AIR YEL

State Champs

Where Paul was sitting

Mayday Parade

‘Star Wars’ intro screen

Simple Plan!

Same pose as my photo!

‘Jump’!

Also very similar to the photo I took

Loved this background image

‘Iconic’

‘Summer Paradise’!

The confetti that got stuck

‘Astronaut’

Fans dressed in Scooby Doo onesies

All singing together

‘Jet Lag’ with AIR YEL

CC crowd surfing!

PB on drums during ‘I’m Just A Kid’

One of the most impressive jumps ever

Leaving