Her Greatest Hits tour, which opened at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night, is the kind of legacy act showcase that will paste smiles on the faces of her now 40-something fans
Avril Lavigne launched her Greatest Hits tour with a concert at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena. PHOTO BY AMY SUSSMAN /Getty Images
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Avril Lavigne broke into the charts with Complicated. But for her Greatest Hits tour, Canada’s pop punk queen kept her opening night concert at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena very uncomplicated.
The career retrospective she packed into around 90 minutes really did deliver all hits and no filler.
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From the career-spanning video snippets and album cover montage that opened the show as her five piece band struck its first few power chords to the closing farewell spotlight turning off as I’m With You faded away, Lavigne seemed to take the words of Here’s to Never Growing Up to heart.
At 39 years old, she still skips across the stage like she did at age 17. She swears like an adult.
But the essence of her contribution to pop music is those snotty call-and-response choruses that nobody forgets.
Songs such as the opener Girlfriend were amped up by her prowling across the backstage as the first launch of streamers covered the crowd. By the night’s end, folks on the floor had been covered in repeated volleys from the confetti cannons, air-punched along to What the Hell as clouds of dry ice misted past and enjoyed a walk through time with the headlining MC.
