Simple Plan kicked off their North American tour last night in La Tuque with a fantastic show at the Jeudis Centre-Ville festival for over 8000 people. The show was the first show in a while that the band performed together and therefore needed quite a long soundcheck to make sure everything sounded just the way it should. Some fans even got to witness the soundcheck, which was about an hour long.
As this show was not a part of the No Pads tour, Simple Plan performed what seems to be one of the variations of the Taking One For The Team tour setlists and even though it was a festival, Simple Plan had 1.5 hours at their disposal to prove themselves to the local crowd, so they opted for the longer setlist – however they did no play the party medley.
David’s absence was of course very visible – the empty microphone stand that was left on David’s usual spot was a dead giveaway that someone was missing tonight. Many fans even came to the show with banners saying “We love you, David”, supporting their favorite band’s bassplayer from afar. Interestingly enough, Chady Awad (who we’ve counted on to play David’s bass just like he did on the European tour) wasn’t present to take over David’s bass for this show, instead we’ve been told the band used a pre-recorded track to keep the show going with some bass tunes. Besides that, Simple Plan’s guitar tech Chris also apparently helped out with some bass sidestage during Grow Up.
Before Welcome To My Life, Pierre took the time to adress the absence of their friend David on stage and decided to dedicate this song to him. You can check out Simple Plan performing a part of Welcome To My Life in La Tuque on the video below:
And finally, check out some of the first pictures of Simple Plan back on stage – last night in La Tuque:
