After thirteen years leaving her Thai fans waiting, Avril Lavigne, the Canadian pop-punk princess, drew hordes of mostly female, 20-something Avril fans to Impact Arena last night.
Not to mention the tweens, who although accompanied by parents, were still allowed to dress in a plaid miniskirts and fishnets.
As the lights went out, the concert hall was filled with thousands screaming for the singer playing her first show in Thailand a decade after becoming famous for energetic, angsty anthems like “Complicated,” and “Sk8er Boi.”
Many of her fangirls wore colorful hair extensions clipped on for the occasion along with other punky accessories. It seemed everyone there wanted to look like the 29-year-old singer, and as the crowd screamed louder, she stepped out to the stage like she knew it.
Wearing a black tutu skirt and sporting a Hello Kitty bow, the extremely-tiny-and-adorable Avril opened her performance with “Hello Kitty,” a song from her latest album.
“Hello Kitty, you’re so pretty! K-K-Kawai!” she sang.
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Photo: BEC-TERO
The crowd rose from their seats and started jumping along the beats. Avril continued to sing hits from the newest album such as “Rock n’ Roll,” “Here’s to Never Growing up,” and “Bad Girl” to please the crowd, many of whom could sing along with every word.
“Bangkok, you are the reason I smile tonight!” Avril yelled as she began singing one of her best angry-girl songs – “Smile.”
“You know I’m a crazy bitch! I do what I want when I feel like it!” she sang, words which fueled a generation of girl power inside the hearts of female fans.
The highlight of the event came from the audience, while she played her most reliable hit. As the first notes of Sk8er Boi began, most of the crowd raised pieces of paper – distributed earlier by her fan club – creating a symbol meaningful to Avril, a black star.
“This is so cool!” she said. “Raise your sign up!”
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Avril seemed genuinely overwhelmed by the surprise and told staff to take a picture from the stage. The crowd screamed louder and jumped in excitement.
A moment of realization came for this fangirl-reporter during a run through of her older, brunette-era material. The 12-year-olds around me looked bewildered by the songs released before their birth.
“When did you first know Avril?” I asked a 12-year-old with pink hair next to me.
“When she sang Girlfriend!” she answered, which confirmed they fell in love with Avril in her blonde days, when her anger had cooled and her poppiness increased.
Meanwhile, these old songs raised some screams of nostalgia from the twentysomethings like myself who’ve adored the singer since the day she expressed her hatred of Britney Spears. The older crowd waved their hands and sang their hearts out, “Don’t try to tell me what to do. Don’t try to tell me what to say.”
After 15 wonderful songs, the night ended with the song that made us all know Avril – “I’m With You.”
As if to response to Avril’s lyrics, the entire hall whipped out their last signs for the last surprise. Raised above their heads, the message read: “We’re with you.”
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From the view on the big screen, I was pretty sure Avril started to tear up. She pointed her microphone to the crowd and made us all sing with her until the end.
“Good night, Bangkok!” Avril took a bow and her tiny figure ran to the back stage. The crowd knew the end was coming, but everyone seemed to want more after thirteen years of waiting.
Despite screaming her name, the lights came on, signifying no encore.
Avril’s performance kicked ass, that’s the best description I can offer. Her real, live singing voice wasn’t stellar, but that’s what you would expect. However she was a great entertainer, indeed.
For those who adore Avril Lavigne, they would know her concert is about the beats, the girl-power lyrics, the punky hairstyle and the screams. The concert was a platform for women to express their angry self, in the most stylish way possible, and we all knew inside, we had become Avril’s little black stars when the night ended.
