Photos by Neil Van
Avril Lavigne takes us on a magic school bus ride of 2000s nostalgia.
Since I emigrated to Toronto I get these moments when I just want to shout “CANADA!!” Seeing Avril Lavigne in concert was 100% one of those moments.
Honourable mention to the support act Jagwar Twin. They look like a guy transported directly from the opening of a Sugar Ray concert circa 1999 bumped into a hair metal band in 2019 and decided to team up. They sound a bit like a Maroon 5 tribute band without the lead singer insisting on showing all his torso tattoos.
Head Above Water opens the show; accompanied by lots of excited screams and a video montage that looks like someone spent a week in Iceland wandering up hills and along beaches in a flowing dress. It’s dramatic and moody and absolutely what I want from an Avril Lavigne concert. The crowd agrees – composed of a whole heap of 30 year olds and some pre-teens having the time of their lives as Avril enters in the flowing dress from the video. She nips off stage for a quick change and comes out in black with her guitar slung, launching into My Happy Ending.
Four tracks in and Avril pulls out Complicated, my mind flung back to when I first heard Let Go. I borrowed the CD from my friend Claire on her 16th birthday and I listened to it on repeat for most of 2003. It was the perfect time for an impressionable teen girl to get really emotionally invested in glorious pop punk nonsense because she had no actual problems to worry about, thank god. I spent a lot of this gig feeling like I was 16 again, singing I’m With You and Sk8er Boi with gusto and playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. The ridiculosity of Avril’s songs hits almost immediately with Here’s to Never Growing Up; pop nonsense with a nod to Radiohead. I’m half cringing, half punching the air.
The best way to experience this concert is to get fully invested, so I’m committed. I’m hollering “Hey hey you you I don’t like your girlfriend” and chuckling to myself. Remember Hello Kitty? I feel like I’m in a pinball machine coated in cotton candy; it’s nuts.
The smattering of tracks from latest album Head Above Water are well received as she ping pongs between drama and absolute silliness…
Things get a bit hokey when Avril invites her cousin onto the stage: a small guy in a flat cap holding the hand of a woman a good foot taller than him. Just as I’m expecting an uncomfortable familial duet, something even more bizarre happens: he drops to one knee and proposes – to the cheers of the crowd. It’s unadulterated cheese. The potential fiancée nods and they’re whisked off stage with a “welcome to the family” from Avril.
It’s a tight one hour set and a two song encore, then Avril’s wrapped and we’re sent on our way. It feels jarring that it’s suddenly over, but also fitting with the rollercoaster hurtle through Lavigne’s catalogue…I fucking loved it. Here’s to never growing up.
