Avril Lavigne rocks on

THE recent concert by Canadian singer Avril Lavigne proved one thing – she is still the reigning ­pop-punk princess among her Malaysian fans.
Her recent two-hour concert took place at Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Stadium Merdeka on March 14 with around 15,000 fans lining up to hear her perform.
After over a decade in the music industry, Lavigne has built a somewhat diverse fanbase.
Most of her fans were in their teens or early 20s, although quite a number of young preteen girls could be seen in the crowd, waving posters and glo-sticks and singing along to her songs.
The concert kicked off with a clip featuring a montage of scenes from all her music videos, along with a recorded message of her thanking her fans for their support.
The artiste then burst on to the stage performing Hello Kitty, a track from her latest self-titled album, dressed in a leather jacket and a fluffy tutu skirt featuring pictures of the character.
After that, she led the audience in a singalong for one of her biggest hits, Girlfriend, before moving on to tracks off her new album – Rock N Roll and Here’s to Never Growing Up.
The rest of her performance that night was a healthy mix of old and new, with die-hard fans singing the loudest in her more familiar songs like My Happy Ending, Complicated and Losing Grip.
She also performed Let Me Go, a song which she recorded featuring her husband, fellow musician Chad Kroeger, and Bad Girl, her collaboration with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson.
For the latter, she came out dressed in a black leather outfit and a cheeky pair of devils’ horns on her head.
Despite performing some wildly energetic tracks, Lavigne looked very relaxed onstage.
In fact, she was almost too relaxed: there was very little interaction with the audience, beyond the standard: “How are you feeling, Kuala Lumpur?” and introducing her band members.
It would have been nice to hear Lavigne talk a little bit more, though she might have been just a little tired, considering she was at the end of a two-week, eight-city Asian tour.
She finished off her set with the track that made her famous – her iconic punk anthem, Sk8er Boi.
Once again, the audience sang along with her, and didn’t stop when she did. They kept on chanting for more, even as she and her band left the stage.
After a few minutes, she predictably returned and treated them to three more tracks – Smile, What the Hell and I’m With You – before finally ending her performance for the evening.
For her fans, seeing her onstage was a dream come true, and more than a few of them will be counting the days till she makes her way to our shores again.