CONCERT REVIEW
SIMPLE PLAN and MXPX
Riviera Theatre
Chicago, Ill.
January 30, 2004

Entertainment
Art

By BARRY BRECHEISEN

On a cold Friday night in January, Simple Plan made their best efforts to bring the heat to Chicago’s Riviera Theatre. Canada’s own headlined a long evening of youthful power punk angst. You may not know their name but for all practical purposes they are the squeaky clean counterpart of a Green Day. The ones parents might actually approve. Not unlike the early days of Rock and Roll when the Pat Boones were created to ward off the evil hip shaking Elvis Presleys of the world. Is it a good thing? It’s hard to say but there’s no arguing that their bubble gum punk is all the rage these days with MTV’s TRL generation. The Riviera’s near sold-out crowd is a testament to their faithful following.

"You Don’t Mean Anything" opened up the band’s 14-song set from their debut and so-far only CD, No Helmet, No Pads…Just Balls. Singer Pierre Bouvier (can’t get much more French Canadian than that) bounced around the stage looking every bit his youthful years easily enticing the teenage crowd to jump, scream and sing along.

One song after the next, the band pumped out tunes of growing pain woes and alienation. In the chorus of "Grow Up" Bouvier sings, "Until the day I die I promise I won’t change / So you better give up / I don’t wanna be told to grow up" It’s simple and nothing new, but the fans in the audience embrace and scream out every line of their mantra. Listening to song after song, you wonder where the days have gone when you heard a guitar riff or a vocalist and had no question what band you were hearing?? It’s becoming increasingly difficult these days to tell the difference between Simple Plan and bands like Good Charlotte or say All-American Rejects. Of course maybe there isn’t a difference. Maybe it’s the simplicity along with the universal themes that are just what this generation wants!? One could argue that not all song writing has to ooze poetic prose like Sting or a have a political slant like Bono. Nonetheless, Bouvier and the band seem to be having the time of their lives.

MXPX, who shared the bill tried to create some fun moments but the 3-piece often came off like a poor man’s Blink-182. In the middle of playing their song "Broken Hearted" they stopped to take a ten-minute detour to bring up two girls from the audience to have a "bass off". "Those weren’t actors", proclaims vocalists and bass player, Mike Herra. Moments like these were just a complete waste of time and slowed down what momentum they were trying to generate.

Cover songs seemed to be very popular as well with both bands. Simple Plan did a horrible and embarrassing cover of The Turtle’s hit "Happy Together". Whereas MXPX decided to go a safer route with The Clash’s "Should I stay or Should I go" sung by guitarist, Tom Wisniewski. Not horrible and faithful to the original, it was the highlight of their set.

Overall, the modern day punk shows are a far cry from the past when a skin head would break a bottle over his head and a fight would instantly ensue. It’s all been cleaned up, sanitized and packaged for the mainstream. Love it, hate it, don’t understand it…there’s one thing for sure, the kids seem to dig it and I’ll take that over a Limp Bizkit any day!