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Avril Lavigne Diary
Review: Avril Lavigne Black Star Tour @ O2 Apollo in Manchester
Friday 23rd September 2011, the day I’ve been waiting for since getting my press accreditation. I had a 720 mile round trip to see Avril Lavigne play the Black Star Tour at Manchester’s Iconic O2 Arena. I’ve loved Avril Lavigne for years, so having the opportunity to attend and review her show was an absolute pleasure.
The audience is chanting ‘Avril, Avril, Avril’, the house lights are dimmed, and the band play the intro to the namesake of this tour, Black Star. Avril appears on stage with a neon-light-up star, enthusiastically waving it in the air while singing the first few lines of Black Star before disappearing again. A few seconds later, the band upped the volume, the stage lights went up and Avril reappeared to sing the rest of Black Star before jumping right into her uptempo hit What The Hell, currently one of my favourite Avril tracks.
Following What The Hell, she performed her first ever single, “the song that started it all for me“, she said. The band start playing Sk8er Boi, and a deafening roar from the crowd erupts. Singing along enthusiastically and waving their arms in the air, the 3,500 strong crowd were having a rocking good time. Avril looked absolutely amazing and had a massive smile on her face throughout. She was constantly shouting her love for the fans.
I’ve seen Avril perform before so I knew she was a great live entertainer, however I heard that she struggled on the opening night of the tour at London’s Apollo Theatre two days earlier, loosing her voice during Complicated. As a result, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from her, but ever-the-professional she absolutely smashed it. The Canadian singer-songwriter reminded us that she’s a bloody good performer, and her vocals were on top form.
The audience knew every word and sang along as she performed tracks from her latest album such as Wish You Were Here, Smile, Alice and When Your Gone. She also performed Coldplay’s hit Fix You, which was a great point in the concert. Half way through the song she stopped singing to allow the audience to sing back to her. It was one of those moments where the hairs stood up on the back of your neck. She also brought in old favourites such as My Happy Ending, I’m With You and one of the loudest crowd participation songs of the night, Girlfriend.
She finished the show off with Complicated. The band started playing the intro…. a massive roar from the crowd erupted. “Let me hear you sing this as loud as you can,” she says. ”Uh uh, life’s like this….” Getting to the chorus Avril sang the first line, “Why’d you have to go make things so complicated“… and had the audience sing the line back to her. She did this for the entire chorus section, and again it was one of those moments where you just thought, “WOW!”. The type of ‘WOW’ you’d get when you saw the 85,000-strong Wembley crowd clapping their hands together to the chorus of Queen’s Radio GaGa at Live Aid.
The chemistry she had with her audience in Manchester was stunning to witness. The person right at the back of the room behind 3,500 other fans still felt like they had a connection with Avril, and when you do large concerts of this scale, that is not easy to do. It only enforced my opinion on Avril’s amazing ability to entertain.
She is one of the best entertainers of our generation. In a time where lip-synching is common place at many concerts, it’s refreshing to see Avril be completely live, and still sounding as good as she does on a studio album. I think the underlying message Avril conveys in her songs is to let go and have some fun, and that’s exactly what her concert was all about.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that there wasn’t a single low point in her concert and Hell yeah, Avril’s the motherfucking princess!
Images courtesy of Love Is Gone and Avrilbandaids.com - Thanks guys.
Posted in: The Black Star Tour
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