Dusseldorf - September 27th, 2004 by Sk8er - Bonez Tour

[Vintage Disposition]

Concert: Dusseldorf
Reviewer: Sk8er
Date: September 27th 2004



My best friend & I arrived @ 3:30 pm in Düsseldorf (Philipshalle).
There were a lot of fans standing outside waiting.
We met some friends which arrived a little bit earlier.
It was so cool to see them all again and talk about our favourite singer!!!
The people from avrilfans.de handled out some red lights.Than we heard the soundcheck which was amazing.She played Take Me Away, Together, My Happy Ending and a couple of other songs which I can't remember.But it took over 30 min.!!!
We have to wait over 3 hours until we get in!
It was very nerve-racking to do this, cuz the crowd pushed us against the barriers from behind, so it took like forever until we all got into the building.
Inside we rushed toward the stage immediately and found ourselves in the 5th row.
Now it was 7:00 pm!
My friends & I, all Avril-Fanatics, were really excited for the show, cuz we heard so much rumours from the Munich-Show the night before.We talked about how cool it would be to see her at the piano etc.
It was like 8:00 pm when Bowling For Soup (Avril's supporting act for the first part of her European-Tour) hit the stage!They totally rock...
I think they are as good as Simple Plan, which were originally intended to support Avril.
The set was really short, but who cares!?We all just wanted to see Av!
At 8:45 pm the change-break started and it took like 30 min. until they have finished building Avril's set!
We got even more excited and my adrenalin level got higher and higher!!!
The stage was hide with a big black banner that said:

AVRIL LAVIGNE
Bonez Tour 2004-Eyes

Now it was 9.15 pm and the lights turned out...
It was Avril-Time!!!!!!!!!!!!
The band hit the stage than Avril herself.They started with He Wasn't.
Avril was/is sooo beautiful.I totally fell in love with her (again)!!!She had a really cool slogan on her black shirt.It says: ROCK & REPUBLIC

After the first verse the black curtain/banner fell down and our views were directed toward the scenery.
It was soooooooooooo amazing.

!!!SPOILER!!!

The whole rear wall was a video screen were you could see the red X and the star.
They showed very Avril-ish animations and videos which showed backstage and behind the scenes material!!!
They also showed parts of her videos when she performed the singles.
The drums were attached on a landing so it was high above the stage and you could see Matt the whole time.
On the ceiling there was a chandelier.
Candles were attached around the stage, too which were used for the "piano-songs".
After the 1st or 2nd song, which was My Happy Ending, we began to sing "Happy Birthday" a few times.She reacted really sweet and gave us a symbolic kiss and spoke a little bit german.She is so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!

Avril performed 20 songs including all the singles and her favourite Let Go songs:

- He Wasn't
- My Happy Ending
- Take Me Away
- Freak Out
- Sk8er Boi
- Unwanted
- Anything But Ordinary
- Who Knows
- I'm With You
- Mobile
- Naked
- Losing Grip
- Together (on the piano)
- Forgotten (on the piano)
- Tomorrow (acoustic without band)
- Fall To Pieces (acoustic with Devin)
- Nobody's Home (acoustic/band joined her at the end)
- Don't Tell Me

Encore:
- Complicated
- Slipped Away (on the piano without the band)

The full show took 1 1/2 hour and it totally rocked.We totally freaked out and totally lost ourselves in the music!!!!!!!!!!!!

Avril's performance was the best ever!!!
It was so different from any other Avril show I've seen before, cuz her interaction with us, the fans, was really personal and emotional.She talked a lot and she totally lived each song.Her performance reminds me of Amy Lee's (Evanescence) in some kinds.

After the show we went to the fan-shop where they have NEW merchandise.A very cool black/red hoody with a red X on both arms, a new trucker cap with a skull, new tank tops and a new Tour-Shirt (I bought that!).I really want the hoody but I need XL and they don't had it.:-(
My friends bought some T-Shirts, posters etc.

So it was 11:15 pm when we get out of the building!
We went to Avril's tourbus, but we couldn't stay that long, cuz our last train home arrived at 00:25 am.
We left the place at 11:55 pm.BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Avril came out at 00:00 pm and gave everybody an autograph and talk to her fans.So we missed her...

The day after we read that somewhere in a german forum and totally freaked out.
The good thing was that I got an autograph in April this year when she was here in Germany for some promotion (VIVA Interaktiv).But it would be great to talk to her.Hopefully next time in 2005 when she comes back!!!