Simple Plan and Sum 41 invaded Asbury Park, New Jersey’s Stone Pony Summer Stage for the second night in a row on August 27th, as the penultimate performance of their extended ‘Blame Canada Tour’. Whether they expected extreme humidity and extreme enthusiasm or not, they seemed to arrive prepared for anything. Nor was it possible to detect that they had already put many, many miles behind them on the tour that celebrated twin anniversaries for key albums. For Simple Plan, it was the 20th anniversary of album No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls, making that album the focus of their performance, and for Sum 41, it was the 21st anniversary of All Killer, No Filler, giving it equal limelight. Remarkably, this was the first time the two bands have ever toured together, making the long run fairly historic.
However, both bands have been busy with new music as well. Simple Plan recently released the LP Harder Than It Looks and Sum 41 have announced an upcoming double album, Heaven and Hell. The latter will consist of a Heaven side grounded in Pop-Punk and a Hell side which will go full Metal, reflecting the two sides of their musical output over the years.
I’d be lying if I said that I understood ahead of time that this would be a show rowdier and more packed than any Metal festival I’ve been to. Maybe it was the fact that it was a late August Saturday night virtually on the beach, as The Stone Pony’s Summer Stage is, but that doesn’t account for the fact that the packed-in fans knew every word to every song performed at the show. Given the combined elements, it was a kind of perfect storm for an intense experience.
The show actually got started indoors, as The Stone Pony offered band performances both before and after the Summer Stage features, and Simple Plan and Sum 41 also brought along the guest opening band Set It Off. In all, music ran from 5pm to 11pm for attendees, making it something of a mini-fest of its own. By the time that Sum 41 took the stage towards sundown, however, a seriously focused crowd was in place and a determined mosh pit already digging in.
As frontman Deryck Whibley noted, All Killer No Filler hails from a time when the band put out four albums and four years and were moving at quite a pace. Though the songs from the album don’t feel like they’ve aged at all, Whibley intentionally picked out their 30 second song about Anna Nicole, “A.N.I.C.”, from the album Does This Look Infected, which did keep time context in mind. That’s something that both Sum 41 and Simple Plan did throughout the evening which was impressive – they were both focusing on anniversary albums which would bring with them necessary nostalgia, but rather than totally rose-tinting things, they took part in that experience with fans by commenting on their own youth and perspective when those albums were originally released. There was no air-brushing the past, that’s for sure. Perhaps they were drawing on their own respective ethos in keeping things real with fans.
Sum 41 seemed to get even more motivated and energetic as their set went on, and “Never Wake Up”, “Walking Disaster”, and the emotional and earnest “In Too Deep”, were all great examples of why they are still a force to be reckoned with as a live band as well as in their songwriting. Another layer to this was the crowd involvement they demanded, slowing things down to break out groups for lyric participation, bringing with that a sense of a unique event with focus on the human element.
Audiences may have been a little surprised to hear Whibley share about his own fandom for The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” before they played a bit of the song, but that’s the kind of personal nostalgia mentioned above. They also played a full cover Punk arrangement of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and made obligatory (but still accurate) jokes about being kicked in the head at The Stone Pony. “Fat Lip” and “Still Waiting” were pretty much perfect set-ending choices. On the whole, the crowd had every reason to look forward to Heaven and Hell having been reminded of the strong statements and musical chops that Sum 41 brought at such an early stage in band history to All Killer No Filler.
As if taking the sprinkled layers of nostalgia laid down by Sum 41 as a springboard, Simple Plan went straight into the physical experience of encountering music twenty years ago, to which the audience roared with laughter. In this case, it was using an iPod and excitedly ripping files. But to that point, early in the set, they brought in a song that was not a single back then, “The Worst Day Ever”, and would cater to those who listened to the full album, No Pads, No Helmets, Just…Balls. That was followed by a guitar-loving solo intro to “Addicted” by Sebastien Lefebvre.
So far, this was a sing-a-long set for fans, but Pierre Bouvier then introduced one of their newest songs, “Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare Is Over)” which was released to benefit the Ukraine in their war-torn condition after being invaded by Russian troops. Proceeds from the viewing of the video on Youtube benefit the UNICEF Ukraine Emergency Appeal. Well, with a new song, it’s possible the audience would listen quietly, taking it all in, but in fact they already knew all the lyrics and we were well prepared to hear the single live.
Their decision to throw shiny black beach balls out to the crowd only added to the high-energy party atmosphere at the beachside setting, but they didn’t shy away from more melodic, slower songs like the also very relevant “Summer Paradise”. Harder hitting tracks like “Welcome To My Life” and “Boom!” continued to get big reactions. Bouvier stopped to chat with fans a few times, and in one commentary, asked why, having released their first album 20 years ago, Simple Plan were still in the business. Two nights sold out at The Stone Pony were enough proof why they should, he declared. But just in case anyone needed more proof, that they are in fact “pretty good” at what they do, and if still further, more “scientific” evidence was needed, he said, “It’s people like you!” This made for an endearing interlude and while you might expect bands back on tour after the pandemic to get a little emotional with fans, this was pretty much on par for Simple Plan’s tendency to recognize their fans in an open way.
Speaking about their new album, Harder Than It Looks, Bouvier introduced another new song, saying it was about “people when you’re growing up saying, ‘You’re a little too weird!’” His response to those people was, “Fuck you! I’m going to be iconic!” The song “Iconic” followed. Simple Plan’s new music shows some layered construction and refinement that speaks to their reconsideration of the past and their stock-taking of where they are right now, and that’s audible in the song “Iconic,” which looks backwards, but also looks forward both in theme and sound. You might notice the same ideas hidden in the album title Harder Than It Looks, which could refer to their career thus far or to their own determination to continue.
Simple Plan performed some excellent medleys and full covers in the final stretch of their set, ranging from “All Star” by Smash Mouth (again, showing their own fandom but sticking to a nostalgic era), to “Sk8ter Boi” by Avril Lavigne. Few were probably expecting them to bring in The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside”, but the tone worked really well for the celebratory set and alongside “Sk8ter Boi” had a similar determination to “Iconic”.
When Simple Plan moved into “I’m Just a Kid”, a local young New Jersey drummer, Julez, was brought in to strut her stuff as Chuck Comeau readied himself to sing and crowd surf by putting on a full yellow hazmat suit. While the tone of the whole night was inclusive and showed a great love for live performance, there was a little ambiguity at this point about how Simple Plan viewed the pandemic and political stances around it.
While putting on the hazmat suit showed that Comeau was concerned about being “safe” with his health, there was a theatricality to it, which was open to interpretation. His phrase “fuck it” when it came to worrying about the pandemic was also open to interpretation. Possibly contrary to his intentions, this did cause members of the audience who believed the pandemic was “fake” to start shouting slogans like “It was made up!” and pushing towards the stage in agreement. The reaction, thankfully, was short-lived and the band soon moved into “Untitled” and “Perfect”.
Though it was totally unintentional, it resonated to hear lyrics like “sorry I can’t be perfect” as Simple Plan’s closing song in the light of some fans’ pandemic-denying reactions to Comeau’s words. It’s certainly a theme for the times when we are all, no doubt, doing the best we can.
The ‘Blame Canada Tour’ moved on for one more US performance in Massachusetts before jumping the pond for a full European Tour. Given how unflagging Sum 41 and Simple Plan were in their energy at this nearly tour-closing show, Europe is going to get plenty of the same when they take this double anniversary tour to new shores.
