(Las Vegas) After the book, the film: 15 years after telling its “official” story on paper, Simple Plan is the subject of a documentary which will be broadcast on Prime Video at the beginning of 2025. This project launched by the Montreal company Sphère Média was unveiled Saturday in Las Vegas during a performance by the famous Quebec pop-punk group at the When We Were Young festival. The Press was on site.
Updated yesterday at 11:08 p.m.
In front of Simple Plan, a crowd as far as the eye can see. Tens and tens of thousands of people, probably close to 100,000, who were eager to jump around while singing the lyrics to the Montreal group’s songs. The sun was finally starting to set, giving some respite to music fans, some of whom had been at the huge festival site, located north of the famous Las Vegas Strip, since late in the morning.
“There are a lot of cameras here,” singer Pierre Bouvier told the audience. Chuck Comeau, the drummer, had left his instrument and was standing next to him. “There are a lot of cameras here,” continued Bouvier, “because throughout the year, we filmed a documentary. It’s coming out next year…and you’re going to be in it. So, make some noise! »
What the crowd did, with the same enthusiasm that had animated it since the start of the group’s 45-minute performance. We felt and above all saw the current that passed between the pop-punk group and the public.
The audience was lively as soon as I’d Do Anythingthe first song from the group’s first album, released in 2002. It was as if a wave of happiness mixed with nostalgia crossed the spectators, where The Press stood.
Nostalgia, however, could not be the dominant feeling. Even if the festival Simple Plan participated in (complete with guitarists Jeff Stinco and Sébastien Lefebvre) is called When We Were Young and it features pop-punk, indie-rock and emo rock glories of the first decade of the 2000s, it is not an “old people” festival. By the looks of it, a good half of the audience was either not born, still in diapers or not old enough to listen to this kind of music 20 years ago.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Sébastien Lefebvre, Chuck Comeau, Pierre Bouvier and Jeff Stinco, from Simple Plan, in 2011
In 2024, Simple Plan remains an exception in Quebec: no other rock group formed by French-speaking people here has such international influence. Durable too. His popularity exploded from his first album, No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls (2002) and was confirmed with Still Not Getting Any…two years later. These two records feature many of the band’s best-known songs, including I’m Just a Kid et Perfectwhich the group sang in Las Vegas.
A new impetus
The day before the documentary was announced, Simple Plan welcomed journalists to the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas. This place tells in detail the roots of the musical genre on which the group was nourished through a multitude of photos and artifacts evoking the great figures of the genre, from the Ramones to Blink-182. Simple Plan is not mentioned by name, but unmissable, on the second floor, is a photo of its drummer, Chuck Comeau, jumping into the crowd from the stage. The image covers an entire wall.
PHOTO ALEXANDRE VIGNEAULT, THE PRESS
On the second floor of the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, this photo of Simple Plan drummer Chuck Comeau jumping into the crowd takes up the longest wall.
We are in a sort of period of renewal. There’s lots of energy. It seems like the band is more popular and recognized than ever. Which is strange after 25 years of existence.
Jeff Stinco
Jeff Stinco continues: “We celebrate our repertoire with the people who want to be there. We are also in the memory, in the nostalgia of our history. »
This awareness of the passage of time is part of the reasons which motivated the group to embark on the documentary adventure which was proposed to them. “We felt that after 25 years, it was a good time to perhaps take a break and look back,” says Chuck Comeau. To celebrate what happened with the band. »
A “raw” and “true” film
Simple Plan, the official storye, a book published in 2010, celebrated the success of the group by relying heavily on photos. The documentary, which is directed by Didier Charette and which is still in production, will be more “raw”, assures Pierre Bouvier. “ [Didier] wanted to go deeper, show the more difficult sides, the truest,” he says.
The director and his team had “unprecedented” access to the group, assure the members of Simple Plan. Collectively, they had to let go. “Just this year, [Didier] was present backstage at times when we were telling each other the real deal. Everyone sees the surface, especially the images posted on social networks. He had access to what was happening behind all that. »
The band members haven’t seen the film yet, only segments. They admit to having experienced moments of discomfort by not always seeing themselves in their best light on screen.
“We left our comfort zone,” assures Pierre Bouvier.
Simple Plan is now a quartet. However, it was five of them that conquered the world. David Desrosiers, the bassist, left the band in 2020 following allegations of sexual misconduct. He will be present in the archive footage, but was not interviewed as part of the documentary currently in preparation, confirmed to The Press Jeff Stinco and Chuck Comeau.
Concerts Saturday and Sunday at the When We Were Young festival, headlined by My Chemical Romance, marked the beginning of an end for Simple Plan. The group is in fact finishing a two-year cycle of intensive touring which took it to Asia and Latin America at the end of October, in Mexico. “We’re happy that it’s kind of the end,” admits Jeff Stinco, “but it’s been fantastic! »
Transportation and accommodation costs for the writing of this article were covered by Prime Video.
