There are concerts where you walk away talking about the production, the vocals, the setlist, or whether your favorite song made the cut. Then there are shows where you leave thinking, Holy shit, that was FUN.
Simple Plan’s Bigger Than You Think! Tour rolled into STL Music Park with 3OH!3 and Bowling for Soup, and despite Missouri apparently deciding this was the perfect time to kick off another ridiculous summer heat wave, this was easily one of the most genuinely entertaining shows I’ve seen all summer.
It was HOT. We were sweating. The bands were sweating. Everyone was sweating.
Nobody cared.
Because from the second 3OH!3 hit the stage until Simple Plan sent us home, every single person involved looked like they were living their best damn life—and that energy was palpable.
3OH!3 had the difficult job of opening the show while the Missouri heat was still absolutely beating down on STL Music Park, and somehow they made you temporarily forget you were melting. Being from Boulder, Colorado, they came out representing home in Rockies shirts—and immediately beat us to the punch by acknowledging that, yes, the Rockies are in fact a horrible baseball team.
They were hilarious.
Between the interpretive dancing, ridiculous jokes and constant interaction with each other and the audience, their stage presence was almost as much comedy show as concert. At one point they referenced Simple Plan as four good-looking dudes who entertain, and considering these are the guys who gave us “Don’t Trust Me”—while voluntarily wearing Rockies jerseys—I probably shouldn’t trust anything they told us from that stage. But I absolutely trusted them to keep me entertained.
There was never that awkward opening-band feeling where everyone is patiently waiting for the “real” show to begin. 3OH!3 understood the assignment immediately: get people moving, get them laughing and set the tone for the night.
Then Bowling for Soup came out, and I genuinely don’t know how else to describe their set except that it might be the most ADHD entertainment I’ve ever witnessed in my life.
And I mean that as the highest compliment possible.
There was music. There were jokes. There were conversations between songs. There were conversations during songs. There were tangents, banter, poses, bits and four guys who genuinely seemed like they were having just as much fun up there as we were watching them.
My biggest complaint about Bowling for Soup was simply that their set was way too short. It flew by, and I wasn’t ready for it to be over.
These guys very obviously still love what they do. You can tell when a band has played the same songs thousands of times and is simply going through the motions, and Bowling for Soup felt like the complete opposite. Their personalities are just as much a part of the performance as their songs.
Of course, they continued the long-running joke about not playing “Stacy’s Mom.”
Wrong band, guys.
They did, however, play the “Phineas and Ferb” theme song, and STL absolutely lost it. Everyone sang so loudly that at points the crowd nearly drowned out Jaret Reddick himself. There’s something incredibly entertaining about thousands of adults collectively realizing they know every word to a cartoon theme song and deciding there is absolutely no reason to hold back.
Then came possibly the most Bowling for Soup photo opportunity imaginable. In the middle of the set, mid-song, they stopped and posed together so everyone could get their pictures of the band while they could also capture a group photo with the crowd. In an era where half the audience is already trying to get the perfect concert shot, they basically gave everyone an allotted okay, get your damn pictures now moment.
But underneath all of the humor was something much more important.
Jaret spoke openly about mental health and his own recent personal battle with it, introducing a song that came from that experience. For a band that had spent most of its set making us laugh, it was a moment that landed differently. He also talked about Punk Rock Saves Lives, an organization putting the punk community to work doing something that can literally save people.
There was a tent set up at the show where you could take about five minutes and register as a potential bone marrow donor.
We did it.
St. Louis had more than 40 people register, making us one of the highest registration stops on the tour so far. Even more incredible, we were told this program has already resulted in a life being saved.
Think about that for a second.
Someone went to a concert. Someone took five minutes. And somewhere, somebody else got another chance at life.
I’ve seen plenty of artists use their fame to sell something. Seeing a band use that same platform to potentially save somebody was one of the most amazing examples of what musicians can do with their reach that I’ve personally witnessed.
By the time Simple Plan took the stage, STL Music Park was more than ready—and apparently Simple Plan saw absolutely no reason to ease us into anything.
Confetti. Streamers. Full production.
First damn song.
They came out with a bang and immediately made something incredibly obvious: Simple Plan has officially reached that really cool point where their audience is genuinely multigenerational.
There were people discovering this band within the last year standing next to people like me who have had Simple Plan playing in their cars for more than 20 years.
Somehow, nobody felt out of place.
That’s one of the things Simple Plan seems to understand better than most bands from their era. They know how to embrace nostalgia without becoming trapped inside of it. Their music still connects with the people who grew up with them, while continuing to find younger fans who weren’t even alive when some of these songs were released.
They also know exactly how to tap into the music surrounding the era that made so many of us fall in love with them in the first place. Between their own hits, they worked in covers of “All Star,” “Sk8er Boi” and “Mr. Brightside,” essentially turning STL Music Park into one giant nostalgic singalong.
And Pierre Bouvier can SING.
More than two decades into this band’s career, those songs still demand a lot vocally, and Pierre delivered. Nothing felt like expectations needed to be lowered because these songs are older now or because we’ve all aged alongside them. They sounded alive.
Then came “What’s New, Scooby-Doo?”
Simple Plan sings the theme to the cartoon, and fans have turned dressing up as Scooby-Doo for their shows into part of the experience. Instead of simply acknowledging it from the stage, the band completely embraces the insanity and brings those fans up to dance during the song.
Watching people dressed as Scooby-Doo dance across the stage while thousands of grown adults scream a cartoon theme song together is exactly the kind of ridiculous joy I want from a summer concert.
And then there was the merch.
Oh, the merch.
Simple Plan created an exclusive event shirt specifically for the St. Louis show. It had the city. It had the date. It commemorated the exact night we were all standing there experiencing together.
There was just one tiny problem.
ST. LOUIS, MI.
Apparently Missouri got relocated to Michigan and nobody bothered to tell us.
Did this critical geographical error result in a discount on the exclusive shirt?
Absolutely not.
Full price, baby.
Honestly, there is something almost admirable about having enough confidence to misidentify an entire state and still charge full price for the evidence. If anything, it made the shirt more memorable.
I could probably write a novel about this show because there were so many little moments throughout the night that made it work, but the biggest takeaway is actually incredibly simple:
They had fun.
All three bands.
You could see it. You could feel it.
3OH!3 was interpretive dancing and cracking jokes. Bowling for Soup was basically hosting a comedy show that occasionally remembered it was also a concert. Simple Plan was firing confetti into the air, inviting Scooby-Doo onstage and performing songs they’ve played thousands of times like they still couldn’t believe they get to do this for a living.
Every single band looked like they were living their best lives, and that feeling was palpable throughout STL Music Park.
Despite the ridiculous beginning of a Missouri summer heat wave, WE WERE HAVING FUN.
Real, stupid, sweaty, sing-until-your-voice-is-gone fun.
For a few hours, everyone got to be whatever age they were when these songs first mattered to them, while younger fans got to make those same memories for the first time right beside us.
3OH!3 made us laugh. Bowling for Soup reminded us that punk rock can actually save lives. Simple Plan reminded us why they’ve stayed in our cars, playlists and lives for more than two decades.
And St. Louis, Missouri temporarily became St. Louis, Michigan without even getting a discount on the merch.
Easily the most fun and nostalgic show of my summer—and proof that sometimes the SIMPLE PLAN really is the best one.
