Simple Plan are rolling on the Warped Tour right now and collecting random bits of gossip for us along the way. Our latest installment comes courtesy of lead guitarist Jeff Stinco:
It’s 9 a.m. and I wake up to the sound of David screaming in his sleep. Once again, he’s having a nightmare and sounds like he’s getting stabbed by the devil himself. I walk to the front of the bus to take a peek outside and I see an army of men and women already running around everywhere and putting together their tents and stages for today’s show. It takes me a few minutes to realize that I’ve been on this site before for the Pop Disaster tour with Blink 182 and Green Day: we’re in the Windy City, we’re in the beautiful city of Chicago.
Today’s a nice sunny day and for once since the start of the tour, it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain. As I walk out of the bus, I see Pierre and Seb working out next to Pat (our web/video/merch/jack of all trades guy) who’s counting merchandise in our trailer. I’ve had food poisoning for the last week or so but this morning I feel like a new man. I am pretty excited to check out The Used, Face To Face, The Ataris, Story Of The Year and Sum 41. There’s already plenty of kids who are waiting around the buses eager to meet the bands.
I missed Story Of The Year but David tells me that the band is completely nuts: they jump over each other while playing, throw their instruments from one side of the stage to the other and still manage to sound good. A lot of fans stopped me on my way to The Used show to say “Hi” and to chat. I just can’t believe how many people recognized me and how many Simple Plan shirts I see in the crowd.
Bert, the singer for The Used, almost threw up on stage during their set. Quite frankly, I’ve heard about his puking antics before but was hoping to see them with my own eyes. After our daily signing at the Alternative Press tent, I got to see David rock out to “San Dimas High School Football Rules” on stage with The Ataris. “Frenchy,” as Chris Roe calls him, played a pretty mean guitar!
Now I’m fucking nervous: I’ve never seen so many people show up to one of our shows. The worst part is that our wirelesses are not working and we’re about to walk on stage in two minutes. Tim and Oli, our techs, figure out a way to make things work and now it’s our turn to show Chicago that we deserve our spot on the main stage. We hit the stage and instantly the jumping around, the screaming and the body surfing starts. Holly shit! That was the coolest show of our career! After the show, Tim Armstrong from Rancid even came by to congratulate us and to tell me that I’m “a really good guitar player.” That was another surreal Warped Tour moment for me.
My whole band checked out Sum 41 closing the show. The boys looked pretty partied out, but kicked some serious ass. When the show was over, I headed down to the barbecue. I hung out with the amazing Scott Schiflett from Face To Face and my new friends from the band Sloth. Who ever thought that the little Montreal guy that I am would end up talking punk rock with the big boys? Next stop Calgary… see you at the show.
