Simple Plan and Blink 182 rock Toronto

On Sunday night Simple Plan and Blink 182 descended on Toronto for a tag team show in front of a packed Budweiser Stage audience.

Although hailing from Montreal Simple Plan front man Pierre Bouvier told the crowd that “Toronto is like our 2nd home town, it’s the true birthplace of Simple Plan. Toronto is the first place where, in our early years, crowds started to sing along to our songs.” There’s no question that the band’s 20 year history is all thanks to their massive fan base across Canada.

The crowd wasted no time getting into the show on Sunday night either during “Welcome to My Life” the crowd sang loudly and their arms were waving wildly, naturally when they got to “Jump” the entire venue was hoping. I’m almost certain they created waves on nearby Lake Ontario. The energy kept growing and a small mosh pit even started to form during “Can’t Keep My Hands Off You”.

Simple Plan brought a lot of energy to this show and seemed to feed off the crowd’s energy as the night went on. It’s clear that much of the love the fans have for this band is due in part for the way they interact with their fans. Pierre engaged and spoke to the audience regularly throughout the set, at one point asking “does anyone here speak french? we’re from Montreal”.  He told the crowd that the song “Summer Paradise” was written about the amazing summer’s we have in Canada, to which the crowd cheered loudly. Bouvier got up close and personal with the fans during “Crazy” as he jumped into the pit to shake as many hands as possible.

As they wrapped up their set with an acoustic version of “Perfect” the entire venue lit up with cell phone lights. The band joined in and beach balls started flying around the crowd.

Simple Plan performed 14 songs and, for lack of a better word, their set was perfect.

Blink 182 took to the stage next kicking off their set with “Dumpweed”, the first track off of their 1999 album Enema of the State, which the band would play in it’s entirety during Sunday night’s show. Theirs was a large stage setup with, what looked like, speakers from floor to ceiling but in reality it was a digital background allowing for different effects throughout the night.

For their third song, “Aliens Exist” they launched multiple blow up aliens into the crowd. The aliens crowd surfed for much of the song adding an interesting element to the show.

Matt Skiba spoke to the audience on the Raptors championship win, telling them “I didn’t even know of the Raptors until they won. Congrats to your hometown team” naturally the crowd cheered loudly after that comment. The band then jumped into “What’s My Age Again?” and the crowd got even louder, singing along.

Mark Hoppus said to the crowd “I smell weed in this place. Speaking of weed, I got woken up at the border crossing this morning and the border patrol asked him if they had any marijuana. MARIJUANA! Not Cocaine! Isn’t it legal here?” the crowd couldn’t stand still!

About half way through the set, the lights dimmed and the band left the stage. You could see silhouettes of something happening on stage. It looked like the drum kit was being removed and then suddenly out of nowhere a spot light lights up the middle of the crowd and Mark and Matt appear inside. The two performed acoustic renditions of “Down” and “Wasting Time”. I believe they made there way up to the lawn area. But I felt like they lost the crowd at the front for those two songs. There was no video following them and it was just the music. Instead of enjoying the show people just had conversations with each other. As cool as it was for the people in the back, most of the venue had zero visual of them.

Once those 2 songs were complete the focus went back to the re-lit stage where drummer, Travis Barker, was up on a high riser. The entire stage set up had been altered. Only half of the make shift speakers remained. Barker then gets encases in a ball of sorts and starts performing a wicked drum solo within the ball as he spins upside down and around. It was a really cool addition to the show and the crowd loved every second of it.

Blink-182 capped off the night with “Dammit”. Over all the show was a lot of fun and the crowd loved it I was just a bit surprised that the band would opt not to perform their recent singles including “Blame It On My Youth”, their first single in nearly 3 years. I get that the audience prefers to hear the songs they know but you’d think that the band would want to showcase their new music as well as their old.

If you can this is definitely a tour you’ll want to check out. Both bands know how to bring a good time and the music is familiar, or at least it should be if you’ve been listening to rock over the past 10, or so years.

The only remaining Canadian date on this tour, for Blink 182, is Sunday night in Quebec City, QC for the Festival d’été de Québec (Quebec Summer Festival).  For a full listing of dates visit https://www.blink182.com/

More Photos