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Pop punk princess on toiling tour
Avril Lavigne: (JP/Nurhayati)While she lost her usually strong grip on shows, pop punk diva Avril Lavigne kept a hold of her fans during a concert in Jakarta earlier this week by wielding a rock nâ roll spirit to deliver a great concert and a happy ending for them
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Avril Lavigne: (JP/Nurhayati) (JP/Nurhayati)
Avril Lavigne: (JP/Nurhayati)
While she lost her usually strong grip on shows, pop punk diva Avril Lavigne kept a hold of her fans during a concert in Jakarta earlier this week by wielding a rock n' roll spirit to deliver a great concert and a happy ending for them.
Lavigne's Wednesday concert was her third visit to Jakarta and her third-to-last show in the tight Asian leg of her fifth world tour.
Her ongoing tour is in promotion of her self-titled fifth album, which was released in November last year. Lavigne has established herself in the music world with 20 singles and more than 40 million albums sold worldwide
The toiling tour, however, seems to have taken a toll on the punk princess, but she banged away to appease her fans. Since her first show in Osaka at the end of January, Lavigne has been performing virtually every other day across China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the Southeast Asian region.
Her die-hard Indonesian fans, however, could never get enough of her and would do anything to get a glimpse of her in the flesh for the third time, after 2011 and 2005.
A 3,000-strong crowd, most of them teenage girls and many in their best punk outfits, were already gathering around the Istora Senayan sports hall in Central Jakarta as the sun set. As minutes went by, they shouted in unison for security officers to open the gates.
Supported by her band ' Dan Ellis and David Immerman on guitar, Al Berry on bass, Rodney Howard on drums and Steve Ferlazzo on keyboards ' Lavigne entered the stage at exactly 8 p.m. after a video intro and loud fanfare.
Wearing a big glittery Hello Kitty bow, black jacket, a black and white fluffy skirt adorned with faces of the fictional character and tight leather pants, she was immediately met with ear-shattering screams and the frantic waving of neon light sticks from the crowd.
Lavigne opened with singles 'Hello Kitty' and 'Girlfriend' ' from her latest album and The Best Damn Thing, respectively ' as she sparked hand waves and claps from the crowd, who sang along with her, as she pranced around the stage.
She then took a moment backstage to change her outfit and came back wearing a sleeveless T-shirt while the leather pants and knee-high boots remained.
She continued communicating with hand gestures and head bops through 'Rock 'n' Roll', 'Here's to Never Growing Up', and 'I Always Get What I Want', which she ended with an ad lib outro and a forward somersault.
'Hello Jakarta, I'm happy we made it back on this tour. Thank you for coming, are you guys having fun there?' she finally greeted the audience with strained breathing.
She belted out 'Let Me Go', which she sang along with the audience, before retreating back stage again and picking up her guitar.
With the six-string axe, she sang 'My Happy Ending', 'Don't Tell Me' and 'Complicated', all of which were punctuated with high-pitched adoration from the crowd.
She then retreated backstage ' this time for longer, while the band played an industrial rock instrumental piece with Marilyn Manson's face projected on screens to the left and right side of the stage.
Lavigne returned to the stage with red horns on her head to sing 'Bad Girl', 'He Wasn't' and 'Losing Grip', in which she barely managed to refrain from losing her grip on the song's pitch.
She then gave the stage to Howard for a drum solo before rousing the crowd ' and apparently herself ' to energize before the rocketing 'Sk8er Boi', which along with 'Complicated' and 'I'm With You' propelled her into the mainstream in 2002.
'You guys have been so fun tonight. Let's go! Jump! Jump! Jump!' she wailed.
After another retreat to backstage, she returned for the planned encore, which include 'What the Hell', 'Smile' and 'I'm With You'.
'I love you, Jakarta,' she said as she closed the show, which lasted almost one-and-a-half hours.
She then left the stage without the standard issue of 'terima kasih', but her fans left the venue with big smiles nevertheless.
