Living in rural upstate NY it makes it hard to get to live shows, specifically anything that's out of the Country / Classic rock hemisphere. Typically, we are looking at 2+ hour drive to a larger city that we need to be a bit more meticulous when choosing what tours to attend. However, when we saw the lineup for Simple Plan's tour, we KNEW this would be one of those said events.
Our local pals, The Losers Club were scheduled to open it up, putting a ton of familiar faces around. Our latest obsession: Winona Fighter, We The Kings from the Warped Days, and the OG kings of pop punk that started it all: Simple Plan! Unfortunately for us, even after all the planning, we failed to make it past the 90-minute mark into the trip:
Devastated, we spent the next two hours just trying to get back on the road, which ultimately cost us the show that night. We had seen everyone on the lineup prior that we could deal with missing this round, except Winona Fighter. They have been putting out banger after banger for a solid year now and dropped their Debut album: My Apologies to The Chef this past February.
Lucky for us, they announced an acoustic pop-up the next day in another upstate NY city- Rochester, NY, at the Record Archive. Fast forward to the next day, it's two pm, and our vehicle is still in the shop getting repairs. The event started at four thirty, and had limited space. Super bummed- we started to give up hope of seeing Winona Fighter this go round. Then, at the last moment, in walked a friend to the record shop super last minute with an open afternoon. A simple, HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING LIKE RIGHT NOW? and we were on the road within five minutes. A two-hour car ride later and we arrived at Record Archive in Rochester. The line was about thirty to fifty people deep as we stood in the back of the line to be escorted to the back lounge.
The band played four tracks:
Fans had the chance to choose the last two songs of the set. One thing we were super impressed with was that the band took "The acoustic zone" DIY style and made it full electric. The most impressive part- no backing or click tracks- just raw punk rock- just how we like it!
The band shared some details about writing "My Apologies To The Chef" and how they just got back from the UK for the very first time and they are doing two headline tours around the US this year- so if you missed them check the dates for the next run!
