Girlfriend in Town

[Jimmyzz]

Girlfriend in Town
Tue, April 8, 2008


By SUN MEDIA, AND NEWS SERVICES


Avril Lavigne hits downtown London just days after being shut out at the 2008 Juno Awards.

Lavigne's in good company. Celine Dion, who had six nods, one more than Lavigne's, also came away Juno-less from Sunday's Feist sweep at Calgary.
The 23-year-old star headlines at the John Labatt Centre tomorrow at 7 p.m. As usual, she brings a trail of love and snickers from her fans and foes on the web.

"Once inside, Lavigne ripped through a live rendition of her hit Girlfriend to the delight of the audience. Her onstage wardrobe consisted of a black hoodie with black zipper-laden pants," cool pals at the Gossip Girls site.

"And despite her five Juno nominations last night, Avril walked away empty-handed, shut out of all of her categories. Better luck next time!," gush the Girls.

"Paid $200 for a ticket for the Junos in Calgary and it was the worst show I ever seen except for you performing!! I swear it was the only thing I was looking forward to and you rocked it out!!! THANK YOU," adds a fan on Lavigne's own site avrillavigne.com

Then, there is Canadian site dose.ca -- which zapped her Juno spot as the night's biggest disappointment.

"In the spirit of full disclosure, we have to make a somewhat embarrassing admission: We dig Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend. We couldn't care less that she may have ripped it off from some obscure '70s pop outfit. It's a bubbly, bratty, arena-ready anthem that never fails to get us on our feet. So where was the energy in Avril Lavigne's performance? Canada's favourite mallrat lazily walked around the stage and let her backup dancers do all the heavy lifting, limiting her choreography to half-hearted fist pumps and arm waves. Sorry Avril, but 24-year-olds should not sound winded by the end of one song."

Lavigne's comments were not available yesterday. Earlier in the year, she took part in a phone interview.

Q What kind of form is the show going to take?

The show is going to be very upbeat and the production will be bigger in the sense of what you just said . . . dancers on a couple of songs, and LED screens, and I'm going to have checkered flooring. I have a pink sparkle drum kit, a pink piano being made, flags. Over time I just learned how I need to be on stage. I'm more confident. It's just more dynamic, brighter, and more colorful. I'm excited about it because I've been working on the show for a very long time now and this is going to be really fun to finally go play.

Q Do you worry about comparisons to Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera now that you've got a little bit of that production in the show?
No, because my songs aren't bubble gum pop dance songs and I don't have background dancers on every single song like them. I'm not wearing a headphone, microphone on my head. It's a totally different thing. I'm playing guitar. I'm playing the drums. I'm playing the piano. I've had dancers a couple of times and they come out with their attitude. Planning this tour, I was very careful to make sure I didn't do anything too much.

Q You told someone there's an interesting little montage going on during your cover of Joan Jett's Bad Reputation. Can you explain that ?

Actually, this was just Jamie King, my set director, his idea, which he brought to the table, when I go do a change he came up with the idea of having Bad Reputation play on a video montage. And I was like it is really cool that he thought of that.

IF YOU GO

What: Concert by Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne. U.S. band Boys Like Girls is also on the bill.

When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m.
Where: John Labatt Centre
Tickets: $54.50, plus applicable charges and fees.
Call 1-866-455-2849 or check livenation.com or johnlabattcentre.com

Source: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Music/2008/04/08/5224416-sun.html

[miriam]

t4p