Rocker Avril Lavigne enjoys career renaissance, returns to pop-punk roots on latest tour

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This article was published 17/05/2022 (1600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If Avril Lavigne has learned anything in the last 20 years, it’s that love is a little more complicated than it used to be.

The Canadian pop-punk princess rolled through Winnipeg on Tuesday night during a world tour promoting her latest album, Love Sux. The concert was a retrospective of Lavigne’s many artistic phases — from emo kid to flashy pop star to acoustic songstress and back again. The setlist also offered a glimpse at how her opinion of love has shifted over seven records and some life experience.

Relationships are familiar territory for the singer from Belleville, Ont., who released her first chart-topping album, Let Go, in 2002 at the tender age of 16. Catchy songs about falling for skater boys, shunning posers and struggling with overwrought teenage emotions struck a chord with a generation eager for a female pop idol with more substance and less manufactured sex appeal (this reviewer included).

How that particular generation of fans felt about a headliner who took the stage at 10 p.m. on a weeknight is unknown, but — judging by the volume of screams when the curtain fell — most in the crowd of approximately 6,600 people at Canada Life Centre were keen to stay up for some new classics and smokey-eyed nostalgia.

The show opened with a set from Lavigne’s new fiancé, pop-punk rocker Mod Sun (given name Derek Smith). The pair announced their engagement in March and have been playing together during the Canadian leg of the tour — Mod Sun returned to the stage during Lavigne’s set to perform the song Flames, a 2021 collaboration that kicked off their relationship.

Mod Sun’s quick 30-minute appearance was followed up by Toronto alt-rock artist Grandson, a.k.a. Jordan Benjamin, whose acoustic rendition of Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time kicked off an arena-wide singalong. Though their musical styles are quite different, both openers took a similar approach to engaging the audience with high energy sets, inspirational interludes about authenticity and thrash dancing.

Lavigne emerged holding a bouquet of giant balloons and wearing a glittery black mini skirt and combat boots. Performing on a stage outfitted with a large screen and a bank of orange lights, she kicked things off with Cannonball and Bite Me, two songs from her new album about the repercussions of infidelity and bad relationships.

While her earlier songs are written from the perspective of a teen pining for the school outcast, her new music is all about the old flames she loves to hate. That sea change tracks with her personal life. After breakups and two divorces (including her high-profile split with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger), she’s experienced the less romantic side of love and is angstier for it.

Despite a glossier image — her signature black eyeliner remains, but the neckties and baggy cargo pants have long been replaced by pink highlights and leather jackets — the artist’s return to her pop-punk roots is notably spicier.

Lavigne’s stardom has dimmed over the last two decades, but her career is experiencing something of a renaissance. Not that she ever really went away — the singer has been putting out new music regularly and reinventing herself since the early aughts. She performed at the Junos on Sunday and recent collaborations with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly have allowed her to gain purchase with a new, younger audience.

Still, an artist like Lavigne can’t get away from the songs that made her famous in the first place. Mega hits like Complicated, Girlfriend and, of course, Sk8er Boi were sprinkled throughout the setlist, keeping the audience singing along for the tight 75-minute show. Lavigne closed out the performance with an encore featuring some of her slower ballads, like I’m With You.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney