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26 July 2005 >>
Brandon Sun |
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Avril Rocks Young Crowd At
Sold-Out Concert >> |
A sea of waving glowsticks?
We’ve seen that before.
Eardrum-piercing screams?
Par for the course at
kid-friendly arena shows.
But it’s not every day you
get to see 12,000 people
hang on every utterance made
by a woman who stands
5-foot-2 and weighs maybe
100 pounds.
Avril Lavigne, the smallest
pop star in Canada in purely
physical terms — but easily
the biggest internationally
right now — walked into a
sold-out MTS Centre last
night and instantly became
the embodiment of every
young girl’s empowerment
fantasies.
“Who feels special?” asked
the 20-year-old singer
halfway through yesterday’s
70-minute performance,
speaking directly to the
youngest girls in the
audience.
Avril Lavigne may no longer
be the most teen-oriented
recording artist in North
America, what with her
men’s-mag photo spreads and
the more mature themes of
last year’s sophomore album,
Under My Skin.
But since pre-teens still
identify with her, the live
show is designed with young
fans in mind. And after
eight months, Lavigne and
her four-piece backing band
— which includes Winnipeg
resident Craig Wood on
guitar — have the routine
down to a science, opening
with a blast of rock songs,
settling down with a
ballad-heavy mid-section and
then sending the kids home
happy with some snappy
covers.
Dressed like a 1970s pin-up
— with long, flyaway Farrah
Fawcett locks, a tight black
tank and even tighter jeans
— Lavigne kicked off the
show with SK8er Boi, the
signature song from debut
album Let Go, beaming a huge
smile that bore no
resemblance to the sullen
Avril we’ve seen in the
past.
She followed it up with My
Happy Ending from Under My
Skin, playing an electric
guitar slung almost below
her belt, before coaxing out
the glowsticks with the
ballad I’m With You and then
leading an almost sing-along
version of Don’t Tell Me,
whose lyrics can be
interpreted as an ode to
abstinence.
The pace of the show dragged
during a sequence of slower
songs designed to prove that
yes, Lavigne can also play
the piano, and also strum an
acoustic guitar while seated
at a barstool.
But she brightened
considerably when she
returned to the rock of
Losing Grip and covered
Blink 182’s All The Small
Things.
Or maybe that big smile was
due to the fact her merch
people collected $8 every
time they sold a glowstick.
Suddenly, it was encore
time, with Lavigne playfully
tucked behind the drumkit
for a cover of Blur’s Song
2. She followed that up with
her biggest hit,
Complicated, and bang — the
show was over, prompting
12,000 extremely polite kids
to shuffle out of the
building as orderly as
schoolgirls carrying out a
fire drill.
Yep, it was short. But young
fans don’t like marathons,
and there were kids in last
night’s audience who toted
pink teddy bears.
To open the show, Lavigne
enlisted her friend Butch
Walker, who fronted the rock
band Marvelous 3 before
going on to co-write and
produce My Happy Ending.
At the helm of a five-piece
band, the lanky singer told
the young audience how proud
he was to sing live instead
of lip-sync.
“I’d rather completely screw
up someone else’s song than
not be able to sing my own,”
he said, before tackling an
enthusiastically received
Kelly Clarkson cover.
Here’s one guy smart enough
to play to his audience.
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