Zurich - March 14th 2003 by s_bandji - Try To Shut Me Up Tour

[Sharifa]

Try To Shut Me Up Tour Review

Concert: Zurich

Reviewer: s_bandji

Date: March 14th 2003


I remember the day when i first saw avril on tv (that was last september i guess). I thought: wow, what a cute little girl and my god she has a really great voice! So the next day i bought her debut cd (which came out 3 or 4 days before) and i listened to it all day and night long... (what i've never done before with any other cd..!) i think i really fell in love with avril and her music! The following months i downloaded every avril-video, every pic, every mp3, every interview and alot of other stuff i found on the web... i think i spent hours and days in front of my pc...!!!! but i guess u guys all know that kind of avril-mania aswell..;-) So one day in november i heard that she'll come on tour to europe.. 4 concerts in germany have been announced but no concert here in this fuckin tiny little country called switzerland. (do u guys know where it is...?) I absolutely wanted to see one of her shows so i decided to go to munich, germany which is about 2 or 3 hours away from my home. But then, about a week after that, i read that another concert had just been announced in zurich, switzerland, in my hometown!!!! I couldn't believe and i checked about 10 other websites to see if it was really true...and it was!!!
The show has been sold out within a few days, (about 1500tix) but that didn't matter to me cause I got my tickets 90mis after they went on sale. Then the long waiting-for-avril-phase started. I was sooo much looking forward to this show but i had to wait for about 3 months... (i know some of you guys are still waiting for the concert....) After some time my 14year old sister told me that nearly every of her schoolmates had become avril-fans and they were wearing ties, dressing up like avril, behaving like her and all that silly"look-at-me-i'm-like-avril-and-i'm-really-cool"-stuff!! (which is really stupid cause i think avrils message is:"just be yourself" and NOT "be like me"...) Anyways, that fact started makin me really think about the concert. I imagined myself standing right inside a huge crowd of screamin and jumpin little pre-teens who are all pretending to be little avrils. I mean i'm a 20yrs old"man" and a teenieparty like that would really piss me off, uuuh...!! But then, on Friday March 14th i went to the volkshaus and i when i saw all those guys waiting at the entrance, i was really surprised... most of the people were at my age or even older... sure there were many teenies and pre-teenies too, but not as many as i expected, and that was really cool...J I went to the show with my 18yr-old brother (he isn't really an avril-fan, but he likes her pretty much and i didn't want to go there alone...) and we decided to have a seat on the balcony instead of standing in the crowd (where the teenie-party took place...;-)) You also have a better view to take pics on the balcony and you can sit down (important for old people like me...haha)
At 8pm avrils supporting act, Our Lady Peace, started their show. I didn't know them before, but i think they were really cool. They rocked and they had some cool light effects, impressive athmosphere.. (take a look at the pics). But after a while it got a little boring cause the songs were all quite similar to me... After their performance there was a 30min-break...
Then at 9pm, the lights all turned off again and the band started to play the intro of "sk8er boi".. everyone got up and all the teenies downthere started to scream and shout and push and jump.... avril came up on stage and started to sing. She looked great, she wore a black ELVIS t-shirt and her FUCK-belt....really nice! The performance of the band was even better than any live video i had ever seen. They played really tight and powerful, but that wasn't a big surprise cause they are playing together every evening.. They continued with "nobodys fool", one of my favourite avril-songs. Avril dindt't talk much to the audience at the beginning, so they went on with "mobile" and "anything but ordinary". Avril played the guitar on these two songs. I recognized that she can't play the guitar really well.. well she plays not bad but just minimal, and i'm not sure if she was really plugged in... the next song was "losing grip" but i didn't recognize it in the very beginning cause they played a long but quite cool intro (with pre recorded background sounds and grooves.. awesome!) That song really rocked. Then avril took the guitar again to play "naked". I don't like this song that much, cause theres one part where avril always sings a little wrong and i think the whole song is a little powerless. but i love the next song she played: "too much to ask"! A really great song performed by a really great voice! Then avril announced a song that isn't on her album "let go", "maybe some of you know it, it's called "I don't care"" she said. I thought: "huh? I don't know it...maybe it's a cover.." but it wasn't. they started to play and i was like: i know that, it sounds like...yeees, "i don't give a damn"! I've never heard that song live before... and it was soooooo awesome, i love that song, it's much better live than on the cd! "I don't give" was followed by "my world", another great song with a really cool live-arrangement and it's been played really good by the boys. Then avril played her two other hit singles "I'm with you" and "Complicated". I love the live version of "i'm with you" (especially the added violin). This song really shows avrils talent and her great voice, cause its quite difficult to sing (a professional singer told me this..). Then two guys from the audience, a girl and a boy, could go up on stage to sing "complicated" with avril (you see them on pic8). First the girl (one of the front-row-teenies...;-)) sang a part of the first verse. Then it was the boys turn to sing a part of the second verse... but he didn't know the lyrics!!! Avril was a little confused i think, she asked him again later but he didn't want to sing. Funny situation...haha. Then they played "unwanted", my absolute favourite song!!! Great performance! After this song avril and the guys left the stage.
After a little break Evan and avril came up again and avril sat down with an accoustic guitar and they performed a short "unplugged" version of "tomorrow". "Things
I'll never say" was the last song they played, avril on guitar again, not extremely special performance, the boys seemed to be a little tired. By the way during the whole show i sometimes had the impression that some of them, avril aswell, seemed a little... bored.. no not really bored but i think they showed kinda "this-show-is-nothing-special-just-business-as-usual" attitude. But not unmotivated or so...anyways, the show was still fantastic! I was a little disappointed cause they only performed for about one hour.
And i expected them to play some covers or some other extra stuff, but they didn't. But that all doesn't matter, i am sooooo happy i saw avril live and it was awesome. I can't wait for her second album and her second tour...;-)
peace out there