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Live Review
by SashaS
14-9-2002
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| Avril in guitar action |
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Live: Avril Lavigne
Mean Fiddler, London
Friday, September 13, 2002
Avril Lavigne’s is a solid but malleable show
There is an expression about “Policemen getting younger” that needs updating: insert - pop-stars. They are certainly getting younger and all the ‘Pop Idol’ TV-mania makes sure of it but, luckily, there are some genuine young artists. In a world where female icons are, like L’il Kim’s undergarments or Alanis Morrisette’s acerbic lyrics or Shirley Garbage’s attitudes, few and far between, Avril Lavigne has found her place very quickly and might find herself occupying an enviable high-profile position.
The youngster from a small town, 5,000 inhabitants, Nappanee in Canada, all 17 years old, has seen her single ‘Complicated’ peak at the second position on Billboard’s chart and her debut album, ‘Let Go’, certified platinum (1 million sales) in the US after 10 weeks only. It is also gone Platinum in her native country and Japan. She was at the MTV VMA’s, ‘Complicated’ won her the Best New Artist In Video award, experiencing Eminem walking over to her to proclaim, “I respect your record,” before turning away. Lavigne confessed to being stunned and speechless, which is somehow difficult to imagine judging by her vivacity onstage.
Lavigne also has a song in a new film, starring Reese Witherspoon, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ (named after a Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘classic’, covered by Jewel on the soundtrack); Avril’s is a new track, ‘Falling Down’. It was only five years ago she picked up a guitar, learning to play alongside Lenny Kravitz’s records, and her sound can easily be compared with a lighter version of Morrisette’s but it is more like a fresher take of another young pop-rockette from around a decade ago, Julianna Hatfield, with added skater-fashion and a touch of Goth-makeup. She fronts energetically, far more mature than her age might suggest.
Lavigne looks fairly grown-up with her aviator-shades on, and hair pulled back in a ponytail at the beginning, but when she removes them you can see she really is a kid looking younger than 18 she’ll be in few weeks time. (We find out when she’s presented with a handmade metre-by-half birthday card.) She then swaps bracelets with someone in front… These fans, most of them far below datable age (in their parents’ eyes), care deeply for this lithe nubile whose polite ditties about teenagehood reflect their own feelings, frustrations, adolescent pains... Each generation has its own objects of desire… And, worship.
The fans sing almost every lyric from the album she performs – a tad bit too infatuated? – thus keeping the show rather short. It would have been nice if Avril covered a song or two to indicate where she’s hailing from creatively because her palette of influences appears rather like a spectrum. Her band is good with members involved in the show but this is Avril’s gig, there is no way to mistake it for anything but, as all eyes follow all her moves around the stage…
Solid but malleable act.
SashaS
14-9-2002
Avril Lavigne’s album ‘Let Go’ is released on 26 August 2002 on Arista
Avril’s single ‘Complicated’ is released on 16 September by the same label
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