Simple Plan Tours With Avril, Then Gets Warped

01/29/2003 10:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Darren Davis

(1/29/03, 10 a.m. ET) -- Canadian rockers Simple Plan will join fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne on her first-ever North American headlining tour starting April 15 in Cleveland, Ohio. The outing, dubbed the Try To Shut Me Up tour, will wrap up May 17 in Philadelphia. Rounding out the all-Canadian bill will be pop-punksters Gob.

Simple Plan vocalist Pierre Bouvier explained to us why--that when it comes to touring--punk rockers always try to extend an invitation to up-and-coming bands. "That's one thing that sticks out in this kind of music," Bouvier said. "I think all of the bands like New Found Glory, Mest, Good Charlotte, Blink 182, and Green Day--it's kind of like a big punk rock family. I mean people help out. There's certain styles of music where people are competitive and they don't want to bring anybody else on the road. This is really about bands making it, and looking back and saying, 'Wow, we used to struggle and now we're gonna help our friends out and like try to see what we can do for them.' It's like a big family."

While on tour, Simple Plan will perform tracks from its Lava/Atlantic debut album, No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls including its hit single "I'd Do Anything" featuring backing vocals by Blink 182's Mark Hoppus. The album is currently at Number 44 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Following the Lavigne tour Simple Plan will spend the summer on the road performing in the 2003 Warped Tour. The three month-long punk-rock fest will launch June 19 in Boise, Idaho. The band will also perform on ABC's the Jimmy Kimmel Live on February 4 at 12 a.m. ET.

-- Darren Davis and Jason Gelman, New York

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