By Stephanie Mora & Cristina Carrazza

It has been almost ten years since Simple Plan released their debut album “No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls.” Since then, the Canadian quintet comprised of Pierre Bouvier, Chuck Comeau, David Desrosiers, Sebastian Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco, has become one of the most influential bands on the punk-rock scene. With fun fast paced hits, such as “Shut Up!” and “I’d Do Anything” contrasting more serious, honest, powerful anthems such as “Perfect” and “Welcome to Life,” it’s easy to see why this band has become a fan and industry favorite. Simple Plan comes back this summer with their fourth full length album, “Get Your Heart On” and a run on the Van’s Warped Tour. Cris and Steph, both life-long Simple Plan fans, got the chance to talk to Chuck during the Chicago stop of the Warped Tour. They had a chance to converse with the drummer about the band’s new effort and their influential career thus far.

Watching Simple Plan perform live is a different experience. It's different from being at any other show or watching any other band play. For anyone who has seen them live before, I know you will agree when we say that they put on an unbelievable show. When Simple Plan took the AP stage on July 9th at Warped Tour in Chicago, it seemed that not a single person was watching any other band play at that time. There were thousands of people packed tight starting from the front of the stage all the way back to the lawn. The guys performed songs from their bran new album Get Your Heart On and songs from older albums, No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls and Still Not Getting Any. Hearing the entire crowd sing lines from old-school songs like Welcome To My Life and Addicted brought chills and put into perspective just how influential Simple Plan has been over the years. Simple Plan showed a lot of energy, heart and personality on stage. They knew what the fans wanted and how to keep the crowd involved whether it was cracking jokes about taking one's virginity if it was their first Simple Plan show or deeming every single person watching a member of Simple Plan. Lead singer, Pierre Bouvier even made the comment that when someone asked you what you did you could say, "I'm in in Simple Plan, bitch. What do you do?"  Right after making this comment, the band began playing Welcome To My Life, a song that proves just how influential and relatable Simple Plan is. The connection with the audience during this performance was chilling.

Simple Plan's incredible stage presence seems to come from their years of stage experience and their complete passion for what they do. You always here them say that they want to make people smile and they certainly succeed in doing just that. It's hard to leave a Simple Plan show without a smile on your face.