Before Lavigne took the stage for her headlining set, pop-rockers Simple Plan deftly bridged the two-decade gap between who they were then — adolescents writing angsty songs about adolescent problems — and who they are now — middle-aged men singing those same songs to a new generation of teens with whom they still resonate.
Few would have wagered on Simple Plan if pressed to guess which bands would outlast the pop-punk/emo era and live to see its revival. During its debut, critics brushed the band off as one of a spate of Blink-182 knockoffs meant for label executives to cash in and cash out once the fad lapsed. But through a mix of high-energy live sets, self-deprecating humor, and an unexpected pandemic-era TikTok trend, the band that first toured with Lavigne in 2003 lives on.
"I'm gonna go ahead and say some of the people here tonight, in 2002, were living at their parents' house," singer Pierre Bouvier told the crowd. He said he knew some of those people blasted Simple Plan's songs in their childhood bedrooms and told their parents they'd listen to them for the rest of their lives. "Your parents didn't believe you," he said. "You're still here. We're still here. It was never a phase."
Bouvier expressed that sentiment while wearing a cut-off band tee with the title of their 23-year-old, now-TikTok-famous song, "I'm Just a Kid" — the latter two words were crossed out and replaced with "An Adult." As he spoke, the man in front of me fretted over a live feed of his baby, wide awake and standing in his crib back at home.
First Electric, Then Unplugged
After an opening set that included dancers in Scooby-Doo costumes (the band performed the title song for the 2002 animated series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?) and drummer Chuck Comeau crowd-surfing in the pit, a video montage of career highlights introduced Lavigne.She kicked off the set with the cheerleader-pop banger "Girlfriend," to an enthusiastic crowd reaction, but she mostly paced around the stage and let the song's catchy hooks do most of the work. That was largely the case for the first few songs — it seemed as if Lavigne was conserving her energy during the early part of the 90-minute set.
One can only speculate as to why her energy was so low at the outset — artists are human and have off nights, and Lavigne has been open about her struggle with Lyme disease for about a decade now — but she began to come to life when she strapped on a lime-green Stratocaster for the opening riffs of "My Happy Ending." It was one of a handful of instances where her intensity matched that of the crowd, and it should be said that her selective enthusiasm made the moments when she did light up feel all the more authentic, because they were earned.
Lavigne shone brightest during the mid-set acoustic portion, which she used to dust off some of her earlier work, including Let Go's "Anything but Ordinary," which she recently played live for the first time in twenty years. Another highlight was "Breakaway," a song she wrote at 16 during her debut album sessions and handed off to Kelly Clarkson, who made it a hit and named her sophomore album after the song.
Lavigne picked the pace back up with her recent single, "Young & Dumb," a collaboration with Simple Plan, who joined her for the performance. They brought fans up onstage to sing the song with them — one fan who traveled from Costa Rica for the show, another from Italy, another wearing an exact replica of Lavigne's outfit in the "Sk8er Boi" music video. Lavigne signed skateboards for the fans and closed the first set with the memorable track about unrequited love between a punk and a ballet dancer, and the girl who gets the rockstar skater boy in the end.
The encore was surprisingly down-tempo, with Lavigne opting for ballads like "Head Above Water" and "When You're Gone." She knew what she was doing. She'd saved her strength to belt the bridge of closer "I'm With You," the vocal highlight of her long career. When she extended the track and sang it with gusto, you knew she meant it.
Setlist:
- "Girlfriend"
- "What the Hell"
- "Complicated"
- "Here's to Never Growing Up"
- "Rock N Roll"
- "My Happy Ending"
- "He Wasn't"
Acoustic Set:
- "Anything but Ordinary"
- "Keep Holding On"
- "Breakaway"
- "Don't Tell Me"
- "Young & Dumb" (With Simple Plan)
- "Bite Me"
- "Love It When You Hate Me"
- "Sk8er Boi"
Encore:
- "Head Above Water"
- "When You're Gone"
- "I'm With You"
