Canadian singer Avril Lavigne arrived on the pop scene in March 2002 just as boy bands and Britney Spears were past their TRL peak. Lavigne felt like a perfect avatar for teen girls seeking a bit more edge in their pop when “Complicated” hit their ears.
She scowled. She sang in a nasally punk style. She wore plaid skirts, oversized hoodies and Doc Martens. She rejected a “Sk8ter Boi.” Her vibe was very rebel-ish, obnoxious enough to please misunderstood girls but not dangerous enough to cause moms to turn off the radio. And she remained savvy and talented enough to generate hit after hit for a solid decade.
Lavigne, now 39, has decided to celebrate her career to date by hitting the road on the heels of a recently released greatest hits album. For perspective, her 22-year career is now old enough to drink.
At a sold-out Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta Tuesday night, Lavigne drew a crowd heavy with millennials ready for an early ride through the gauzy haze of nostalgia. Lavigne jogged people’s memories via plenty of videos of her younger self while providing a less peppy, mildly chipper and more grounded middle-aged version of herself live.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rhO@ajc
Credit: RODNEY HO/rhO@ajc
With Rapunzel-style blonde hair down to her waist, a black skirt, white hoodie and chunky black boots, she moved tentatively at times, disappearing from stage here and there with no explanation. Her banter was generic and impersonal, her bandmates dutifully unobtrusive. Her voice sounded stronger during the ballads like “Losing Grip” than the faster-paced songs like “Girlfriend.”
All in all, she delivered an amiably unmemorable run through her recognizable hits covering 85 minutes and 17 songs. She got half the crowd to do the “la la la” and the other half the “whoa whoa” during “What the Hell.” She checked the demographics of the crowd before breaking into “Here’s to Never Growing Up.” Before “Nobody’s Home,” she noted that “it’s been way too long since I’ve been in Atlanta.”
This was indeed Lavigne’s first true headlining stop in Atlanta in a whopping 16 years so there was pent-up demand. After her 2008 concert at Philips Arena, she came back for an eight-song mini-set at Star 94′s Jingle Jam in 2013. Then crippling Lyme disease took her down for years. She has since recuperated and opened for Machine Gun Kelly at State Farm Arena in 2022, playing eight songs.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rhoajc
Credit: RODNEY HO/rhoajc
A highlight of the night came when she brought her warm-up act and fellow Canadians Simple Plan out to sing the band’s hit “Addicted” along with a bunch of fans from the crowd, who received selfies and autographed skateboards. Pierre Bouvier, the 45-year-old Simple Plan lead singer, now looks like a very tatted up soccer dad but provided far more verve and stage command than Lavigne.
Travis Mills, lead singer of opening band Girlfriends (not to be mistaken for Lavigne’s song “Girlfriend”), then bounded on stage for a spirited duet cover with Lavigne of Blink-182′s “All the Small Things,” a nod to a band that launched the late 1990s/early 2000s pop-punk phase and clearly inspired both Mills and Lavigne. Mills also got bonus points for wearing a Smiths T-shirt.
Lavigne, filling the concert bingo card, threw in pink-and-black streamers, confetti, frantic graphics and minor techno. And for the encore, she changed into a flowy white dress singing two ballads. First, she channeled her inner Stevie Nicks during “Head Above Water” before closing with a powerful “I’m With You.” She then left the stage without lingering.
