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Sk8er boys
Simple Plan are riding platinum to Skatefest
BY SEAN RICHARDSON

A year ago, Montreal pop-punkers Simple Plan had little more under their belts than a stint on the Warped Tour and a stiffed debut single, "I’m Just a Kid." Since then, they’ve become TRL mainstays with the hits "I’d Do Anything," "Addicted," and now "Perfect," which have combined to push sales of their first album, No Pads, No Helmets . . . Just Balls (Atlantic), over the one million mark. Finally off the road after a long string of high-profile gigs — including an opening slot on the recent Avril Lavigne tour and a second Warped outing — the band are playing a one-off gig on Saturday as part of the annual weekend-long Skatefest at the Palladium in Worcester, headlining over fellow Northeast punk faves Coheed and Cambria and Piebald.

Over the phone from his apartment in Montreal, Simple Plan guitarist Jeff Stinco sounds happy to be home. He also sounds happy with the performance of "Perfect," a tearjerker about the pressure of living up to your parents’ expectations. The song takes him back to a time when his future didn’t look so bright. "For a long time, we all went to college at the same time we had the band. Eventually Simple Plan took so much of our time that we had to drop out of school, and our parents were really disappointed by that. We felt like shit seeing all of our friends succeeding in school, some of them already graduating, and kind of looking at us from a little higher. Nothing was really happening for the band, but we had faith in our music."

Although he enjoyed playing arenas on the Avril tour, Stinco singles out this summer’s Warped Tour, where the band showed their adrenaline-crazed roots with a daily cover of Bad Religion’s "American Jesus," as the highlight of his career so far. "There’s a lot of just hanging around, making friends with great bands, and sharing your love for music. There’s a lot of, ‘Dude, listen to this CD, it’s amazing,’ or, ‘Hey, let’s go jam.’ The hardcore punks were hard to reach out to, but some of them seemed to be like, ‘Wow, this band actually rocks.’ It was a challenge every day to prove that we don’t suck."

"Perfect" will likely be the last single from No Pads, but right now Simple Plan fans can look forward to the band’s first home video, which is scheduled to hit stores in time for Christmas. Consisting primarily of live and backstage footage taken by their Webmaster, it also includes a new studio recording. "All the stupid stuff, all the heartfelt moments — they’re all on there," says Stinco. "It’s the history of Simple Plan through an insider: the struggle, the fun side, the development of the band as we suddenly started enjoying some kind of success. And I think the new song is going to be a good intro for the new record."

Speaking of which: the band are already writing music, auditioning producers, and refining their strategy in anticipation of heading into the studio. "The first record took a long time because we were super anal about getting perfect performances," Stinco explains. "Looking back, maybe we should have been a little more ourselves and just let go at some point. The idea that we have for later recordings is definitely getting closer to our live sound. Obviously we’re very concerned with playing tight, but I think there’s also a desire to capture an energy that is there on the first record but could have been even more present."

Skatefest 2003 features performances by more than 50 bands, including the Starting Line, Home Grown, Allister, Senses Fail, the Early November, and Big D & the Kids Table on Friday; and Simple Plan, Coheed and Cambria, Piebald, the Movielife, H20, RX Bandits, My Chemical Romance, and the Unseen on Saturday, at the Palladium, 261 Main Street in Worcester. Tickets are $20 for Friday and $25 for Saturday; call (800) 477-6849.


Issue Date: September 26 - October 2, 2003
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