What: Avril Lavigne with Grandson and Mod Sun
Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, 1925 Blanshard St.
When: Wednesday, May 25, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $126 (incl. taxes and fees) through Select Your Tickets (250-2220-7777) or selectyourtickets.com
Parallels can be drawn between Avril Lavigne’s 2002 debut and her 2022 comeback, the essence of which comes down to attitude.
Lavigne, 37, is anything but subtle on her seventh and latest album, Love Sux, which should come as no surprise; part of Lavigne’s early appeal was her abundance of teen spirit and spite, and disdain for authority. Love Sux remains dutifully on-brand in that regard.
On the new single, Bite Me, the 37- year-old Lavigne sings, “You should’ve known better … to f— with someone like me.” In the new video for Love It When You Hate Me, she flips her middle finger to the camera. In photos to promote Love Sux, the leather jacket she’s wearing has “Mother F——in’ Princess” emblazoned down one sleeve.
“I had a lot of time in the pandemic to, like, reflect on my life and love and like … all the crazy things it’s put me through,” Lavigne said during an interview with CBC Radio.
Lavigne, who has never been comfortable in front of the press, despite her omnipresence, did few interviews to promote her current tour, but elusiveness has not hurt her visibility. Her first Canadian trek in 10 years has been selling well — only top-end tickets, priced at $126, remain for tonight’s Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre show — and reviews have been positive as she makes her way across Canada.
“[I]t feels like there’s a lot of celebration for me right now, and tons of excitement,” Lavigne said during an interview with Billboard magazine in February. “Writing these songs, I really had my live show in mind — they feel like songs that are supposed to be played out there, they have tons of energy.”
She was a 17-year-old upstart when her debut, Let Go, sold 16 million copies, on its way to becoming the best-selling album of the 21st century by a Canadian artist. Two decades removed from Sk8er Boi and Complicated, the Napanee, Ont., native is still writing about relationships, and sounding non-plussed at the results.
“[T]here was no holding back with the lyrics,” Lavigne told Billboard, regarding the songs that made it to Love Sux.
“I didn’t hold back in being f—king over relationships and guys and how love sucks. Maybe that could have been like a weird thing to be saying at the time, but that’s how I felt, so that set the tone for the album.
“It’s really funny because I was in that place in my life, but it didn’t last very long, and I’m actually in a really good place.”
Her Bite Me Canada tour features opening sets from Toronto’s Grandson and Minnesota rap-rocker Mod Sun, who is engaged to Lavigne. She was previously married to Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.
Through her association to DTA Records and Travis Barker, the Blink-182 drummer who signed Lavigne to her new record contract, she has been on a pop-punk high of late. Her music, which fell drastically out of favour with audiences during the mid-2010s, has surged in recent months, propelled by collaborations with teen star Olivia Rodrigo, who has been performing Lavigne’s Complicated each night during her recent tour.
“It’s nice to see pop-punk, emo, alternative music being really appreciated and seen right now,” Lavigne said, during an interview with Exclaim! “It’s something that I’ve always loved.”
