What was most impressive was how her audience — a happy mix of Gen-X, Gen-Z, Millennials and maybe even a Boomer or two — stuck with her, roaring with appreciation. If that isn’t a sign of a dedicated base I don’t know what is
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Avril Lavigne’s plan to beat the aging process is coming along quite nicely.
The pop-punk veteran might be pushing 40 but she’s still very much the bratty imp rolling in emo anthems, crunchy guitars, and bubblegum melodies. She’s even got a callback song to encapsulate that philosophy, Here’s to Never Growing Up, and if there was one moment at her Rogers Place show on Monday night where the singer and her wildly adoring audience gazed into each other’s souls it was that one.
Except, of course, that it’s Lavigne who gets to “live like rock stars,” not everyone else.
This is as it should be. A teen sensation since releasing the multi-platinum Let’s Go over two decades ago, Lavigne has been in the spotlight more than she’s been out of it in her life. Unlike many of her peers from the early 2000s she’s stayed directly in the centre of it, not only in terms of record sales but also gaining new fans while keeping old ones.
Proof? A happy mix of Gen-X, Gen-Z, Millennials and maybe even a Boomer or two wandering the concourses of Rogers, and not all of them were dutiful parents squiring their kids. Some of them even sang along to Sk8er Boi, waiting patiently for that early banger to finally drop near the end of the concert.
This was billed as a Greatest Hits tour, though, so while Lavigne was careful to keep many of the fan favourites to the back portion, she still had plenty to work with. Like Complicated, her first and possibly biggest hit. Sitting through it live you could hear exactly that point at which pop, pop-punk, and pop-country could easily shift into one another depending on production. Not surprising given that Lavigne’s early years saw her singing along to Shania Twain and Garth Brooks.
There was the de rigueur video montage of young Avril facing early success and media scrutiny, the pep rally cheer What the Hell, the propulsively retro Bite Me, from her last album, Love Sux. Confetti, lasers, flames shooting up at the end of a song, all bases covered, all itches scratched.
But what was most impressive was how her audience stuck with her, not flagging through the lesser-known tunes, roaring with appreciation, staying with her throughout. That being said, for most of the fans at Monday night’s show it seemed like there were no lesser known tunes. If that isn’t a sign of a dedicated base I don’t know what is.
Lavigne is important in the development of pop-punk as a commercial juggernaut. With all else being washed away beforehand, for many people she stands with bands Green Day and Blink 182 as the alpha and possibly the omega. Little wonder that she’s had an influence on so many performers to come after, like Fefe Dobson.
Which isn’t to say that Dobson, who performed before Lavigne with a guitarist and drummer who played like they were born and raised in a hockey arena, is just a knock-off. Sure, you can hear minute traces of the mall-punk snarl in a song like Bye Bye Boyfriend when it really kicks in, and even a little of the stage stance. These are variations on things that have floated through the musical aether since your great-grandparents got drunk on red wine and danced to Artie Shaw.
But influence talk gets us nowhere, especially since Dobson is the exact same age as the headliner. Apples to apples, Dobson is an appealingly strong singer who possesses the same stage presence as Lavigne, along with an arsenal of irresistible, sassy radio earworms in songs like Shut Up and Kiss Me and Recharge My Heart. Switch the teams behind them and maybe Dobson gets to stride the pop world like a colossus, headlining stadiums and dealing with weird conspiracy theories involving her death and replacement.
It’s not completely out of the question, especially if she promises to never grow up.
Concert Review:
Who: Avril Lavigne
With: Fefe Dobson
Where: Rogers Place,
When: Monday, Sept. 16, 2024