A simple plan- SIMPLE PLAN

My first rock concert was scheduled on 29/11/08 and the tickets were booked months prior. Satyam had put his blood and soul to make me feel ‘J’ boasting all about the series of rock concerts he has attended; right from Metallica to Nickelback. By this time I was already fuming with jealousy. AND finally we were successful to book our tickets for this punk rock band- Simple Plan. 

It was simply Satyam’s suggestion to book the tickets. It was only one song I knew about this band and not that it was figuring anywhere among the top of ‘my favourite list’. But I didn’t want to say a ‘no’ and loose out on the opportunity. Anyways, what I know about myself is I don’t need a peg or a fag to be high. Just loud and great music makes me tipsy.

 

My pre-concert preparation involved listening to each and every Simple Plan song by heart and seeing each video………. don’t know how many times. I also made a point to read a little about the group and see the videos of their past concerts on youtube. I took my evening at my own pace to get dressed up and trust me it is difficult to look ‘punky’. I was trying all different sorts of things and it just made me feel disgusting. More than me, it was Satyam who was pissed off and fuming at me “Veda, you don’t need to look punky to go to a punk rock concert, you girls………grrrrrrrr’’.

Catching up with time, we reached the Forum venue. We were aghast looking at the never ending queue. We were almost a kilometre away from the arena. All around us in the queue were young teenagers. It appeared that they had sneaked away from home to attend this concert dragging their partners and buddies along. We managed to get in the arena after about thirty minutes of shivering in zero degree temperature. 

The arena was packed with people. The dance floor and the balcony were stuffed with young and energetic teenagers. The show took off with singing and music by some upcoming bands that were just not familiar to us.  They were trying their best to entertain us and keep us tossed up, but the entire crowd wanted was Simple Plan.

 

Finally Simple Plan made their appearance on stage. From then the atmosphere just accelerated and now there was no looking back. ‘Untitled’, ‘Shut up’, ‘lie’, ‘addicted’, ‘when I’m gone’ and all their other hits kept making the crowd jump up and down. It was the first time I was witnessing a crowd of around three thousand singing along with the band. The crowd was enjoying themselves singing or rather screaming the lyrics on top of their voice. On the other hand, the usual drama of pushing people and sneaking in through the crowd to get in front was a common thing. But overall, it was a different experience and not one second got boring. 

The last song that they sang was my favourite one, ‘Perfect’. Pierre started the song solo just with a guitar. I was feeling ‘oh! Why is he singing just with a guitar, so pale and dry while in the original song, it has such a great music’? Just before I could finish thinking about this David spurred water on the crowd and from there the song took a different turn – check this moment out in the video below in the video bar on this blog.  

 I didn’t realise how my time flew by. I returned home with a hoarse voice and blocked ears. This return was a return of a die-hard Simple Plan fan!

-Veda