Hot off their win at the MMVAs, Simple Plan documented the first few days of adventures on this year’s Warped Tour. Here’s installment number one:
Dates:
- Boise, Idaho June 19, 2003
- Bozeman, Montana June 20, 2003
- Salt Lake City, Utah June 21, 2003
Boise, Idaho, the land of potatoes. This is where the Warped Tour was kicking off this year so we were all flying out of Montreal to start the tour. After the five of us all got “randomly” checked by security, we finally got on the plane to Boise. We got there pretty late and we all went straight to our bus and fell asleep. Well, everybody except David who stayed up until dawn hanging out with Bert from The Used.
As soon as we got to the first show we met up with a bunch of our friends: Mest, Bowling For Soup, The Ataris, Less Than Jake and Glassjaw. The Warped Tour crew is always the same every year so it was awesome to see a bunch of familiar faces. Our show was rad – Lars and Matt from Rancid were side-stage watching us and they came up and talked to us afterwards. It was awesome to hang out with a band we all grew up loving so much. AFI were great and Bert from The Used wins the award for the craziest stage presence: he did a backflip and dove in the crowd from the PA speakers – a 20 feet jump. Good times.
Mother Nature has been a real bitch so far on the tour! The first three shows have been plagued by everything you can imagine: rain, lighting, mini-hurricanes… you name it. In Bozeman, all the merch tents were flying off their pegs and Rancid’s tent was completely destroyed. But we’re pretty sure they can afford a new one. The rain turned the venue into a mud hole. It was rad seeing all those kids walking around covered in mud. It was like Woodstock ’94 all over again or like a Christina Aguilera video. And trust us, we’re not complaining!
We woke up the next day in Salt Lake City. We were the first band scheduled to play at 12:30 p.m. and we honestly thought nobody would be there to see the show. We were dead wrong. Thousands of kids were there waiting for us and as soon as we started playing, they went nuts! It was probably one of the craziest crowd reactions we ever got in our lives. During “Addicted,” the whole floor was jumping with us.
Oh yeah, one more thing: to all the guys out there, Utah girls are HOT! Salt Lake City is a freaking model convention.
We didn’t get to enjoy the sights for too long because we had to leave right after our show to get on a plane to Toronto for the big MMVA show. It was rad to be back in Canada for a few hours! We got to play right on the corner of John and Queen Street and we got to meet a bunch of famous people who didn’t have a clue who we were. We got to hang out with Ray Romano, Fred Savage from the Wonder Years, Rachel Leigh Cook and Mya. She’s right, her body is like Whoa!
At 10:30 p.m., the MuchMusic crew told us to walk towards the stage and wait there because there was a chance we might be winning the People’s Choice Award. We thought they were fucking with us but then… WE WON!!! It was surreal being on stage thanking people. Thank you to every single person who took the time to vote for us – we appreciate it more than words can say! It was amazing to win an award in Toronto, the place where it all started for our band!
After the show, we went to an after-party at some bar. The only good thing about that party was the free food. We left and went to bed. Now we’re back on Warped Tour! Kansas City here we come!! Talk to you guys soon.