Simple Plan, BOYS LIKE GIRLS, We The Kings @ Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide 9/4/2024
It’s easy to see why this show sold out. Everything about tonight is fun. That teenage fun where your only cares in the world were ‘does that girl like me’ and ‘why do my parents hate me’ but they actually don’t. A time you hung out with your friends on late summer nights talking nonsense without the pressures of adulthood.
Then adulthood happens and fun gets drained away in the monotony of 9-5 jobs, changing diapers and reality TV.
Tonight is the perfect antidote, the cure if you will, to the brain numbing malaise of life for we have the ultimate feelgood bands with the masters Simple Plan orchestrating the evening.
Boys Like Girls and We The Kings have the show starting how it means to go on. Florida’s We The Kings are the equivalent of a surprise birthday party with the poppers going off. The packed theatre is bouncing straight away as vocalist Travis Clark cajoles the crowd to jump.
Opening with Skyway Avenue, a Mayday Parade vocal tracked When We Were Young and a hugely interactive I Feel Alive where Clark gets everyone to dance like his daughter. They are a fun, exciting and actually quite humorous watch.
Boys Like Girls start with thunderous drum set from John Keefe as the rest of the band appear and dive straight into Love Drunk with the venue’s screams louder than a fire alarm.
Vocalist Martin Johnson gives 80’s Gary Cherone vibes and it’s no wonder, the boys hail from Boston and the exquisite feelgood dance 80’s synthwave that flows through their music is the main ingredient.
Dressed head to toe in black leather and bandanas, the band have no room to chit chat and land banger after banger, 5 Minutes To Midnight, Be Your Everything and an epic acoustic Thunder which has hands waving, phones out, singing to the sky performances all around. Another good vibes fun set.
Simple Plan walk on to the Star Wars theme tune and how the crowd still have energy after the two previous bands blows my kind, however they do.
Opening with I’d Do Anything and Shut Up!, the smoke bellows, everyone claps and sings back, the ticket tape illuminates the venue. And this is just the opening to the show!
The band for the part are whirlwinds of constant movement, vocalist Pierre Bouvier acts like a man twenty years younger, such is the vibrancy. He has the crowd doing everything he asks. Sing? They do? Wave hands? They do? Jump during Jump, well you get the picture.
The country tinged You’re Love Is A Lie is resplendent in a pink hue before oldie Addictive illicit another wave of cheers and song.
Streamers pop off and giant beach balls bounce around the room for Summer Paradise and it’s easy to see during Astronaut and Million Pictures Of You why this band commands arenas in North America.
The fun continues as Bouvier compares Australia to America and says all the right things before launching into a medley of tracks from our youth in All Star/Sk8er Boi/Mr Brightside hammering down on this giant party.
Talking of parties, Scooby Doo dressed characters appear on stage shortly after and We The Kings Travis Clark gets up for a duet on Where I Belong as everyone is welcomed to join in.
The whole night has been literally one big kid’s party. Streamers, lights, comedy, your mates joining in, laughter and song. Yes, in the encore they do play that song that made them famous around the world, however at this stage to tell you what happens is to ruin the surprise when you go to the show yourself. Which if you don’t have a ticket, you should get one.
Live Review By Iain McCallum