3OH!3 Talked Family, Resurgence, and Fandom Before Their Show in St. Louis with Simple Plan Sunday

–by Hailey Dell

Some concerts are about seeing your favorite band. Others feel like stepping back into a different era. Simple Plan’s stop at St. Louis Music Park with Bowling for Soup and 3OH!3 managed to be both.

The lineup brought together three acts that helped define the pop-punk and alternative music scene of the 2000s and early 2010s. Nearly two decades later, their music still brought together longtime fans and a younger generation, discovering these songs for the first time.

3OH!3 kicked off the night with an energetic set that immediately turned St. Louis Music Park into a party. Their setlist was one of the highlights, packed with songs that longtime fans came to hear while still showing how their music continues to reach new listeners.

During my interview with 3OH!3 before the show, the duo talked about the changing makeup of their audience. Their 2008 song “Rich Man” has recently gained a new audience through TikTok, and the band said that at some shows, roughly 75 to 80 percent of the crowd is seeing them for the first time.

“We don’t try and disclude that from our set list,” they explained, describing their shows as largely a greatest-hits experience while still making room for new music.

That balance was clear in St. Louis. The set felt nostalgic without feeling like a recreation of the past. Check out the entire interview below after the setlist.

Bowling for Soup kept that energy going with a performance full of personality, humor and pop-punk fun. Their set reminded everyone why their music has remained such a staple for fans of the genre. Songs that once belonged to teenage bedrooms, burned CDs and early social media were now being shouted back by a crowd spanning multiple generations.

Then it was time for Simple Plan to bring the night home.

As the headliners, Simple Plan delivered the most emotional dose of nostalgia. Songs like “I’m Just a Kid” and “Welcome to My Life” have become closely tied to growing up and hearing them live years later created a full-circle moment for many fans.

The crowd was one of the best parts of the entire night. Parents who grew up listening to these bands stood alongside younger fans, discovering them for the first time. The music may have come from another era, but it clearly hasn’t lost its ability to connect.

That generational connection was something 3OH!3 also touched on during our interview. Talking about longtime fans bringing their children to shows, the band said, “When we started making music, it was to make our families, and our friends smile and laugh and dance.”

That sentiment seemed to capture the entire night.

Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup and 3OH!3 each brought something different to the stage. Bowling for Soup brought the humor, 3OH!3 brought the party and Simple Plan brought the emotional nostalgia.

Together, they proved that nostalgia isn’t necessarily about looking backward. Sometimes it’s about realizing that the music you loved years ago can still mean something today, while also becoming something new for the next generation.

At St. Louis Music Park, the 2000s didn’t feel all that long ago. The music was still loud, the crowd was still singing, and, for one night, everyone was part of the same era again.

Simple Plan Setlist:

I’d Do Anything

Nothing Changes

Shut Up!

Jump

Jet Lag

Addicted

You Suck at Love

Welcome to My Life

Summer Paradise

Astronaut

Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)

Can’t Keep My Hands Off You

Crazy/Perfect World/ Save You/ This Song Saved My Life

All Star/ Sk8er Boi/ Mr. Brightside

What’s New Scooby Doo?

Where I Belong

Encore:

I’m Just a Kid (With Jaret of Bowling for Soup on vocals)

Perfect

 

Be sure to check out the full gallery of photos after the interview below.

INTERVIEW WITH 3OH!3:

Hailey – Okay. since starting out in 2004 and dropping your 1st album in 2007, uh, you’ve naturally seen a massive shift in your audience from OG fans now bringing their kids to your shows, to deep cuts blowing up, for a completely new generation online. with your crowd now spanning different age groups and levels of fandom, how do you balance a live set list so it satisfies the hardcore fans wanting those deep cuts without losing the casual or newer crowd who just wants to throw up the hand sign to “DONTTUSTME”.

3OH!3 -Yeah, I mean, it’s maybe easier than you think, because honestly, a lot of the stuff that everyone wants to hear is some of the older, you know, stuff off want, stuff off streets of gold, even the new fan, uh, a lot of them come across it because it’s, you know, rich man is what was blown up on TikTok. That’s off one. You know, we’re definitely pretty privy to that and we don’t try and disclude that from our set list. Like most of our set list I would consider greatest hits. 
Yeah. Uh, set list. And then we have a new album that we’re finishing, and we have songs that are out. 
So, like we want definitely to move forward and progress sonically. So, we play a new song or two. But I’d say like, it’s, interesting because I don’t think I realized how many new fans are at some of these shows until I asked. 
I was like, whose 1st time seeing us or even civil planner bowling pursuit? Like, 80%, 75, 80%. It’s their 1st time. 
So, it’s like, it’s very cool for us to reach new people and to, you know, show them a show that, you know, we might be 40 now, but at the same time we try to be as active and energetic on stage as we were back when we were in our 20s, but, you know, we’re not we’re not Benson Boone up there. We’re not doing backflips. We’re trying. 
I’m not gonna do one tonight. All right, we might get one.

Hailey– Sure. 
And speaking of bringing your kids into this, Nathaniel, you recently had your daughter on the new track, ‘My Friends’, that you guys just dropped actually in the middle of this tour. What was it like-bringing family into all of this and what was it like for her hopping on the mic for the 1st time?

3OH!3 – It was amazing, man. It’s, I think, you know, like you were talking about OG fans bringing their kids to this, to this tour, that’s so special for us. We grew up in in households that were multi-generational in terms of like when parties were going down, you know, it was grandparents. 
It was parents, it was kids.  And that’s always been the best thing for us. And then with our music, you know, it’s like 1st and foremost when we started making music, it was like to make our families and our friends smile and laugh and dance. 
And so, yeah, we, my daughter Nico and I were just hanging around, you know, chopping it up and I had a guitar and we just started rapping about her friends and how they’re crazy, and they have a lot of energy, and, uh, my daughter’s just so dynamic and funny, and yeah, so, then when we kind of applied that to our own music and brought it in to Sean, we kind of saw a correlation between that and our own friends that sometimes want to party. So yeah, it’s kind of, you know, obviously as dads and as family people, the 1st foremost, our loves, our family and friends. And I think that that that sentiment can extrapolate out to, our recorded music and our live shows. 
It’s like we grew up cutting our jobs on a war tour where that line between, you know, fans and bands is really well blurred and everybody’s part of the same family, out on a party out there. So, literally to have that with our music we couldn’t ask for anything better.

Hailey– That’s awesome. 
And I heard this started out in your living room, just kind of like a chill family session and stuff like that, and then it became serious, which I thought was super cool.

3OH!3– Yeah, man. Her feature fee is exorbitant, though. 
I don’t know. I don’t know who’s negotiating our contracts but they’re brutal.

Hailey – haha, I can only imagine! So, as we mentioned, Richmond earlier, your 2008 song, “Rich Man” is viral on TikTok right now. 
If you could swap its viral success with any other song from your discography, which one would you choose?

3OH!3– “Dragon Backpack”? “Dragon Backpack” is a good choice. 
I like that. That would be… I could see that. 
Honestly, that could be viral. Let’s push it. We’re gonna find some “Dragon Backpack”. 
He also tried, “I’m Not Your Boyfriend (Baby)”. Uh, we tried… Strudge started trend. 
But that’s the thing, you can’t you can’t really make these things happen. We just took our shirts off and started driving and singing the bridge to that, and everybody’s like, put your shirts back up. Everyone wants to see there.

Hailey – Sure, sure.

You guys spend a lot of time at writing and producing tracks for other pop and old artists. 
When you’re back in your own creative space, what is your absolute favorite style to write and produce? Like in your own personal time. What would you write if it was just up to you?

3OH!3– Yeah, I mean, honestly, for me, it’s always kind of like what’s most accessible in the moment when an idea comes out and I usually just have an acoustic guitar, like a get to lately. So honestly, a lot of the ideas that come to me in the moment are almost just acoustic folk sounding, just because I have the guitar next to me. Yeah. 
That’s probably the most natural just because, again, it’s kind of like if I’m watching my kids, what’s at arm’s reach if I have a melody in my head? Uh, so, yeah, that’s probably, like, the most natural inclination, which is funny, because I grew up very much in a hip hop, like, rap sort of mentality, but.. 
”Hours in my house”, well, it’s booty base. Ghetto tech, booty base, just… booty rock and beats.

Hailey – Yeah, it’s very opposite of, you know, what you guys are most known for. 
I think that’s, that’s kind of cool. Actually, how that kind of starts.  One more long question: You’ve been touring now for nearly 2 decades. What is a specific city or venue that felt like the absolute center of the universe to you back in 2009? And does it still hold that same magic when you pull up to it today?

 

3OH!3– I mean, I think one that’s close to home for us is Red Rocks, man. We grew up, you know, at least in America, it’s probably the outdoor venue that every artist wants to play. Everybody wants to go see a show there. 
And we grew up there and grew up seeing shows there. I saw nine Inch Nails there. Also, Joanna Newsom and Bjork and Dave Matthews, and then to be able to be on that stage, and be on the other side of it, it’s just amazing. 
It’s just an amazing place to go, to spend the day, to see a show. So, yeah, when you’re on there, it’s surreal and it’s wild and it’s everything kind of bundled into one in terms of growing up being a fan of music and live music. It’s wild to sit on the other side of the fence there for sure. 
Yeah, that seems to be a big milestone for every artist that we see.

Be sure to Check out 3OH!3 on tour with Simple Plan that continues through August 20.