Simple Plan brings fans to orgasmic heights

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Canadian punk band Simple Plan put in a resounding performance that kept the fans on the edges of their seats during the long- awaited live show at the Tennis Indoor Hall here last Saturday.

Rolling out their much-vaunted 2005 Still Not Getting Any ... Tour, Simple Plan performed 19 songs during the show, and made plenty of efforts to communicate in quite good Indonesian as they screamed out invitations, not to mention a hilarious impersonation of girls-gotta-love-him crooner Justin Timberlake.

Kicking off with Shut Up, taken from their concert-titled sophomore album, the five-piece band swiftly took their some 5,000 screaming fans, who religiously sang along to every single line, to orgasmic heights.

Numbers like Jump, Addicted, One, Promise, I'm Just A Kid, as well as their biggest hit so far, Welcome To My Life, consistently managed to get the adrenaline pumping.

The band also performed for the first time ever a song called Crazy, as well as Grow Up, which proved a major favorite with the fans as they shouted the chorus line: "I don't wanna change, I don't wanna grow up" over and over again!

High school pals Pierre Bouvier (vocal), Chuck Comeau (drums), David Desrosiers (bass/backing vocal), Sebastien Lefebvre (guitar/backing vocal) and Jeff Stinco (lead guitar) blazed onto the pop punk music scene with their first album No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls in 2002, which propelled them to global fame.

The band, which sees itself as speaking for underdog teens, co-starred at gigs staged by their punk predecessors until Still Not Getting Any... was released in 2004 and sold millions, paving the way for their own solo tours.

The Jakarta performance was the band's second date in Southeast Asia after Singapore, and will be followed by Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila.

Although the stage set was mediocre, and the sound system quite basic, the band managed to prove that maintaining communication with the audience is the key to producing a night to remember.

They even played three more songs after the lights went out and the we-want-more routine began, as one band member carried an Indonesian flag onto the stage.

Having pulled through a 90-minute-long high-octane show, the band closed with their most-celebrated song, Perfect, which was indeed a perfect pick to end an almost perfect show!