Indulgence

Avril Lavigne was here

Charles Simic from School of Visionaries
I'm in the last row with a firefly in the palm of my hand.

I went to Taguig to watch the Avril concert. First off, it was Simple Plan. Not really my favourite band in the world. Honestly, I couldn't really care less. I miss the days when punk was Green Day or The Cure. Now, with all these Blink 182s and Wheatus and stuff; American punk music has been the theme songs for all the losers in the world. I'm just a teen-age dirtbag, baby and all of that shit. I got Courtney Love's album America's Sweetheart and listening to her music, I'm certain she can kick the asses of all those sad American punk rockers who celebrate their loser-hood. I'll be doing a review of America's Sweetheart in my review site soon.

Anyway, I'm digressing. Simple Plan was personable and they knew how to please a crowd. Their music is okay. As I said, I'm not a big fan. But it was great that they started the concert because as wonderful as Avril's songs maybe, she's not the most charming of performers.

She steps out and the crowd goes wild. But they go wild because it's Avril and she wrote some really cool songs. But she doesn't really win them over. Her spiels consists mainly of Hello, Manila and Thank you, Manila and It's great to be here, Manila. There was one moment when she went on a long spiel about what Losing Grip was about but that was it.

But her music has always been from the gut and that was really the high point of the concert. To hear her music live. And to see her there, hitting every note with her amazing voice, I guess was just amazing. Then she played on the grand piano on 2 tracks and the drums on a cover of Blur's Song 2 with the lead singer of Simple Plan singing vocals. That was kind of cool.

But my biggest problem with Avril was that despite how well she sounded and how cool it was to hear her play her songs live; it was as if I was listening to the CD. She didn't play with the arrangements of her songs, there were no extended instrumental parts or change in instrumentation. There was nothing new. I could have listened to the CD and it wouldn't have been any different. I wanted something more, something I don't hear normally.

Like watching Alanis Morissette perform live. She changes the arrangements of the songs. There was an electricity in her performance. Avril, not being very charismatic, made me loose interest when she was playing a song I wasn't familiar with. I felt like rockin' everytime I heard a familiar song. But when I watched Alanis perform twice here in Manila and was floored. Even the songs I didn't like like Mary Jane or Are You Still Mad got me head-banging and rocking with the rest of the crowd. There was something new to hear and there was something to say.

After Avril's concert, people asked me how was it? And all I could say was, it was good. And then I say I saw her play piano and drums. That was it, really. But with Alanis, I could try to explain how she played each song or how she was bouncing around like a rabbit or a kangaroo on stage. I could expound how I was dancing and head-banging and being all rocker-like.

*sigh* Alanis was so much fun. I hope she returns. I'd love to rock to her new songs like So-Called Chaos and Everything.

Oh wait, isn't this supposed to be an Avril concert review...?

Post Script
I'll post the pictures from the concert when I get them. If anything, though, she was beautiful. Her hair is so long and nice and wavy and she is looking good, looking happy. That's good, right? Now, she just has to learn how to be a performer, not just a singer then all will be well...

posted by wanggo @ 6:44 PM