The very first printed-out setlist of the No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls tour from New York City revealed to us a few weeks ago that Simple Plan intended to play either Grow Up or Vacation that night. At the show, the band decided to play ‘Grow Up’ and ever since then, even though the printed-out setlists still include the phrase “Grow Up / Vacation”, the band has only performed Grow Up as the ‘bonus song’ before Perfect ever since.
Now, of course, that wasn’t a thing I could just let slide, so during Seb’s first livestream on Instagram Stories today, I asked Seb why was Vacation featured on the setlist if they never play it at the shows – and we got our answer!
According to Sebastien, on the first night, the band casually decided to go with Grow Up, thinking they may play Vacation next time. During the song, the plan was for Chuck to get the microphone and have a speech, after which he jumps in the crowd and crowdsurfs during the song while Pierre plays the drums instead. However, since then this Grow Up bit has become such an epic moment of the show, they just didn’t want to get rid of it. As far as Vacation concerns, the guys still keep it written down on the setlist, since they plan on playing that song as a surprise at certain shows on the NPNHJB tour.
There you have it. Mystery solved. Thanks, Seb! Now – which show will be the first to hear Vacation live for the first time since forever? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I have updated the setlist of the No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls tour in the setlist section, so you can go check it out.
