Concert review: Simple Plan w/ 3OH!3 & Bowling for Soup | 08.09.26, Saint Louis Music Park (with photo gallery)

Photo of Simple Plan’s Pierre Bouvier by Pariss Brown

We’ve all heard the saying sex sells, but there’s another human experience to cash in on: nostalgia. That’s exactly what Simple Plan was going for on their Simple Plan: Bigger Than You Think! Tour – The Sequel! Let me take you somewhere: it’s 2008. You’re in middle school. “1985” and “High School Never Ends” by Bowling for Soup are now classics, released in 2004. Side parts are huge and you still own a pair of Heelys. You are allowed three iTunes credits a week, so you download 3OH!3’s newest song “Don’t Trust Me” onto your iPod nano. Simple Plan has just released what is arguably their best album to date and your older sister listens to it on repeat. Fast forward two years to 2010. You’re in high school. 3OH!3 has just released “Streets of Gold” featuring KE$HA. You pile into the backseat of one of your friends’ cars and scream every word. You dream about clubbing and brushing your teeth with Jack Daniels. It’s a simpler time.

This time in pop culture was a constant transition. As social media exploded, music, clothing, and food trends reached people at a rapid pace. 3OH!3 was chaotic, messy, and new just when millennials were getting a grip on technology. Their music became the anthems of rebellion, friendship, heartbreak, and MySpace pages.

While we are mentioning nostalgia discography, it can’t be left out that Simple Plan is the band behind the 2002 What’s New, Scooby-Doo? theme song, and Bowling for Soup sings the Phineas and Ferb theme song. This tour is for some people the start of their childhood all the way to adulthood. This is one of the most thoughtful tour lineups I have ever seen in terms of marketing and target demographics. There were so many details that made it cohesive and cheeky instead of cheesy including special edition Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?-style merch and a dancing group of crowd-chosen Scoobys during the famous number. Simple Plan’s stage setup included bright and elaborate stage screens, dancing costumed mascots, confetti cannons, foam cannons, and streamer cannons. I worried a bit about the bands melting into a stream of insanity, but Simple Plan made sure there was a clear headliner. This was another great decision with two openers to keep the audience engaged, and engaged they were.

If you were a teen in the mid-2000s who remembers this period in music, you will enjoy this tour, even if you haven’t listened to the songs since 2008. It is designed to take you back in time through not just music, but the tv show your younger sibling watched after school, the music your older sister blared through a closed door, the music coming through the shared iPod earbud on the bus: the little moments that added up to your childhood. | Pariss Brown

3OH!3 Setlist:
Punkbitch
Starstrukk
Double Vision
Richman
Hear Me Now
Touchin’ On My
My Friends
My First Kiss
Colorado Sunrise
I’m Not Your Boyfriend Baby
Rock You Like A Hurricane (partial Scorpions cover)
Don’t Trust Me

Bowling For Soup Setlist:
Girl All the Bad Guys Want
High School Never Ends
Almost
Ohio (Come Back to Texas)
Getting Old Sucks (But Everyone Is Doing It)
Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day (Phineas and Ferb theme)
Turbulence
Punk Rock 101
Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus cover)
1985

Simple Plan Setlist:
I’d Do Anything
Nothing Changes
Shut Up!
Jump
Jet Lag
Addicted
You Suck At Love
Welcome To My Life
Summer Paradise
Astronaut
Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?)
Can’t Keep My Hands Off You
Crazy/ Perfect World/ Save You/ This Song Saved My Life
All Star/ Sk8tr Boi/ Mr. Brightside
What’s New, Scooby-Doo?
Where I Belong

Encore:
I’m Just A Kid
Perfect