Simple Plan Review And Pics

For a sold out Enmore gig, there was no doubt this was going to be good. The line was trailing around the block with people everywhere adding to the anticipation of the evening ahead.

First up were Sydney’s local lads, New Empire (Jeremy Fowler, Pete Gillies, Kale Kneale, Kyle Lane), who rocked out with seven awesome tracks. Starting the night with ‘Worth The Wait’, they continued with a favourite amongst fans, ‘Here In Your Eyes’, then teaching the audience the words to ‘If He Hurts You’ definitely got the crowd going. Afterwards lead singer/guitarist Jeremy turned it down a notch, playing their latest release ‘Ghosts’ from their brand new album ‘Symmetry’ on keys, creating a much calmer atmosphere. Then another video song, ‘Give Me the World’ and to end, Kyle Lane, the bass player and latest recruit to the band, excited the audience by playing his bass with a violin bow for ‘One Heart, Million Voices’. What is certain is that New Empire are a band to keep an eye out for.

Then came Tonight Alive (Jenna McDougall, Jake Hardy, Whakaio, Cam Adler, Matt Best), another local band, with heaps of energy from Jenna, the crowd roared when ‘To Die For’ came on. Also plugging their October tour, which is coming up with Rufio, they played their single ‘Starlight’, a newie from their debut album ‘What Are You So Scared Of’ with the crowd really getting into their track ‘Wasting Away’.

Finally, Quebec’s very own five-piece, Simple Plan, (Pierre Bouvier, Chuck Comeau, David Desrosiers, Sebastien Lefebvre, Jeff Stinco) took to the stage.

Starting off with ‘Shut Up’ made a bang. Then came, video song ‘Can’t Keep My Hands Off You’, and ‘Jump’ which made the earth shake and a Black Eyed Peas ‘I Got a Feeling’ Cover. Then came the introduction of their very own drummer and DJ, Chuck allowing ‘When I’m Gone’ to begin. Front-man Pierre gave the crowd what they came for, lots of pelvic thrusts and a great all round feeling. Then came ‘You’re Love Is A Lie’ and ‘Astronaut’ just before telling the audience that Pierre and David were the only ones who enjoy vegemite as it’s good for you and that they wanted to come move to Australia and make some “Austranadians” so they wanted to find someone with a beach-house, thus segueing to a new album song ‘Summer Paradise’. A mash-up of tracks was what everyone was craving for after Simple Plan split the crowd to David’s dark side and Seb’s bright side, and this was what they provided with ‘Fuck You’, ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Raise Your Glass’. The crowd was in frenzy as a circle pit was formed. Jenna was then brought up to bring in the female vocals for ‘Jet Lag’ even though they didn’t feel that way at all. Then a chat occurred whereby David publically announced he didn’t want bras on stage, but he wants boobies, which got a comment from Pierre saying that Jeff was very single and diseased free if anyone wanted him. This got a girl from the crowd to take off her top and bra to ‘I’m Just A Kid’ which was just completely weird.

Finishing with a solo acoustic session with Pierre and ‘Perfect’, then bringing in the encore and finale that nearly took the roof down, declaring their love for Australia, Simple Plan were definitely coming back in 2012.

Click HERE to check out the rest of pictures from the gig.

Words by Gretchen Lee

Photos by Sarah Telford