Photos + Words: Haley Pagenkopf
On Tuesday, November 12th, Simple Plan and State Champs with special guests We The Kings and Northbound made their way to the Truman in Kansas City, Missouri to put on one heck of a good show. The Florida originated Northbound started off the night on a high note. Between the crowd interactions and the non-stop dancing, the band used their opening slot incredibly well. I’d say they got a pretty large following of new fans that night, myself included!
Up next was We The Kings which consists of Travis Clark, Charles Trippy, Danny Duncan, Hunter Thomsen, and Coley O’Toole. A few highlights from their set were when O’Toole took a moment to serenade the crowd with a little cover of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ as well as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Another special moment of their set was when they performed their hit ‘Check Yes Juliet’ purely because I don’t think there was a single person at the show who didn't know the words and wasn't screaming along.
Now it was time for State Champs. The New York band is made up of members Derek Discanio,Tyler Szalkowski, Ryan Graham, Tony Diaz, and Evan Ambrosio. Their setlist consisted of songs both old and new with most coming from the newest album they’ve released which was ‘Living Proof’ in June of 2018. State Champs are a favorite of mine and are always a joy to watch perform. You can always expect to have a good time when they're on stage.
Headlining the show was Simple Plan. The band comes from Montreal, Quebec and contains Pierre Bouvier, David Desrosiers, Chuck Comeau, Jeff Stinco and Sébastien Lefebvre. This show probably felt nostalgic for a lot of people with songs such as ‘Welcome To My Life’, ‘Addicted’, ‘Perfect’ and ‘I’m Just a Kid’ being performed. Another moment that brought on a lot of fond childhood memories was when the band performed ‘What’s New, Scooby-Doo?’. Towards the end of their set they brought out Derek of State Champs and Travis of We The Kings to perform ‘Where I Belong’ which is the song the bands created together and released before they embark.
The 20 date tour started in Richmond, Virginia on October 29th and ended on November 24th in San Francisco, California. While this tour is over now, be sure to stay up to date with all of the bands via their social media’s. All four of them put on a great live show and you should definitely try to attend the next time you see that they’ll be in your city.
Simple Plan: Everywhere - @simpleplan
State Champs: IG/FB - @StateChampsNY, Twit - @State_Champs
We The Kings: Everywhere - @WeTheKings
Northbound: Everywhere - @NorthboundFL