Simple Plan: Pop punk to the OGs, classic rock to the newbies

DENVER — Simple Plan has witnessed the rise — and hard fall — of pop punk.

"It was quite traumatic," drummer Chuck Comeau said of the shift in tone toward the genre. "It was hard to always be told, 'Oh man, this band sucks.' And you read all these comments and these message boards."

Now, low-rise jeans are back in style, digital cameras are all the rage, and pop punk is once again on the charts, with Simple Plan riding the wave a second time.

Twenty-five years ago, Comeau, Pierre Bouvier, Sébastian Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco were just teenagers with a dream and some instruments in a Montreal basement. Now, the band is on its biggest tour to date — the "Bigger Than You Think!" 25th anniversary tour — and released a documentary on Amazon Prime last month.

Their shows are bigger and feature