This review is of the Simple Plan show in Chicago, IL. Simple Plan was performing with Avril Lavigne. The show was on April 19th, 2003 at the UIC Pavillion.

After waiting the long 15 to 20 minute break for the Simple Plan equipment to get set up, the band came running out, jumping up and down. The crowd went totally wild!

The band started the set with "God Must Hate Me", which most of the fans knew. After that, they went right into "You Don't Mean Anything". Once they finished that song, they started to talk to the fans. They introduced themselves, talked about how everyone had had a bad day, and then went into the song "Worst Day Ever". Right at the end of the song, they opened up water, and started pouring it on the crowd. Everyone went crazy!

Next up was one of their more popular songs, "Grow Up". Right after that, the band went into the song "Addicted". "Addicted" is currently on MTV's TRL, so everyone knew the words, and after Pierre started jumping up and down, the crowd followed.

Simple Plan, being as nice as they are, took the time in between songs, to thank both Gob and Avril Lavigne for being on the tour with them.

After they thanked the bands, Pierre asked fans to hold up lighters, cell phones, or anything that lights up, because the next song was a special song to them. After nearly half of the 10,000 people held up their cell phones and lighters, they started the song "Perfect".

"It's time to party hard Eminem style!", Pierre yelled before they started singing Eminem's hit song "Lose yourself" from the movie "8 Mile". After they finished just a clip of that song, they did some other covers, such as "In Da Club" by 50 Cent and "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.

The band next played their first single "I'd Do Anything", and they mentioned two of the guys from the Chicago band Mest, who were watching the show from the side of the stage.

Simple Plan finished the show with "I'm Just a Kid", which was also on the Great America amusement park commercials.

Everyone was upset that Simple Plan had to finish their set, but I'm sure many of the fans will be at The Warped Tour to see the band perform, again. I had never seen the band perform before, and I was really impressed. They really got the fans to interact with them, jumping up and down, and just having fun.

After the set, the band said that they would be out mingling with fans at the merch table. I think it's amazing that the band still takes the time out of their busy day to just go down and sign autographs and chill with the fans. That just shows how down to Earth Simple Plan is.

 

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