Avril Lavigne
Monday, 17 June 2024
Pula / Arena / Croatia
Avril Lavigne! The name that instantly makes millennial hearts skip a beat proved last night at the Pula Arena that, twenty-two years into her career, she is still the undisputed “princess” of pop-punk.
The Pula Arena, one of the most stunning venues in our former shared country, hosted Avril Lavigne yesterday to a near-sold-out crowd. The Canadian, who shot to fame at the tender age of seventeen and is crowned one of the founding mothers of the so-called pop-punk genre, was making her very first career visit to our southern neighbours — one of the rare headline slots on her current European tour. In keeping with the teenage-stardom atmosphere, the youngest member of the Rockline crew also turned up in the audience, phone in hand, shooting the photos for this report.
The evening was opened with clockwork precision at 20:45 by Rijeka’s own Kraj Programa. With an act this big, hardly anyone stops to ask “why do we even need an opener?” — but the locals put on a genuinely excellent show and warmed the crowd up properly. The energetic performance of vocalist Đina Škulić had even those who might charitably be called Generation X (and older) busting out dance moves, with a look in their eyes that suggested local orthopaedists were already browsing for new boats online. A warm, smiling, and powerfully delivered set from the local act charged the atmosphere and cranked the excitement up through the thirty-minute wait before Avril stepped on stage at exactly 22:00.
Her show opened with a video journey through her career — one that honestly looked more like a farewell montage (more on that at the end of the piece). At its close, she tied it straight into the first video in history to hit 100 million views on YouTube — Girlfriend! The track that, more than any other, reveals a great deal about men. The Pula Arena reflected a Hello Kitty toy factory, bathed entirely in pink and purple hues. The male portion of the audience watched Avril’s entrance with eyes on stalks — in some cases a bib might have been in order, because she proved she is still one of the wonders of this world, appearing on stage looking exactly the same as she did twenty-two years ago. The doors of memory swung open and the whole arena time-travelled back to the early 2000s. A reminder: Avril still holds the record for the best-selling Canadian artist of the 21st century — a milestone she reached with her very first album, Let Go — a testament to the mark her music left during the formative years of a genre she personally dragged into the mainstream. That is also the main reason why plenty of fans made the trip from neighbouring countries, and of course — as at the concert by her ex-husband in Opatija last year — Slovenians were out in force too.
The concert rolled on with “What the Hell” and “Complicated”.
The singing and screaming never let up. Next came another smash, “Smile”, followed by “Here’s to Never Growing Up” — a track born as a response to one of the biggest conspiracy theories in the music world. Thanks to her impossibly youthful looks, the internet has been circulating a theory for over a decade that the real Avril died in 2003 and was replaced by a much younger girl who served as her body double, supposedly named Melissa. Why they wouldn’t have simply used her then-unknown younger sister in that scenario, we’ll leave for the conspiracy theorists to work out. Her sister Michelle only entered the public eye about seven years ago, when she married Ryota Kohama, the Japanese bassist of ONE OK ROCK.
True to the tour’s name, Avril was firing off hit after hit! Then, at track thirteen, came a surprise. A riff everyone in the building knew flooded the space — All the Small Things by Blink-182, which instantly became the most sung-along track of the night. Avril was reading the lyrics, though, and mid-song she skipped a chunk of the words and got a section wrong. She laughed it off, made a quick apology, and powered through to the end.
Well, after a cover like that, only one song could follow — her most iconic track: Sk8er Boi. Peak concert energy, right there. You’d never have thought the floor of the Pula Arena could actually shake — but it did. For a second you might have thought it was a real earthquake, given that the amphitheatre floor is hardly lined with sprung wooden boards. Mid-song — at which point it’s worth noting that blood circulation in much of the male audience had likely detoured away from standard extremities — the track suddenly stops. What’s going on? Avril picks two girls from the crowd who are dressed exactly as she was in the music video. She invites them on stage for photos, hands them skateboards, and one of them even gets to sing on stage alongside her idol. Without a doubt, a concert these two girls will never forget for the rest of their lives. Once a security guard promptly escorted off the girl who had clearly lingered on stage a touch too long, the song kicked back in. And because this is precisely the track that many say defined both the genre and the decade, the main set wrapped up there.
Very slowly, a small symphony orchestra made its way back to the stage. Anyone who follows the newer side of Avril knew immediately: the next song would be Head Above Water. The track that announced her return to music after a hiatus of more than four years spent battling Lyme disease. The all-white costume matched the moment perfectly — a symbol of surfacing after years of being pulled under by illness. Avril had clearly won the crowd over, because she came back for a full three-song encore: When You’re Gone and I’m With You followed.
This concert delivered exactly what Avril Lavigne fans came for. Both the old-school faithful and the slightly younger crowd got their money’s worth. The Pula amphitheatre, with all its singular qualities as a venue, put the finishing touch on the emotional intensity — and when it was all over, many people were left with tears in their eyes. Plenty of fans who had been waiting twenty-odd years for their idol walked out of the Pula Arena satisfied and smiling (tears and all).
There is a lot of speculation that Avril is quietly preparing to hand over her crown. That speculation was sparked first and foremost by the name of the current tour — Greatest Hits. The opening video of her set, essentially a highlight reel of her career’s greatest achievements, also hinted that a farewell may not be too far off. Whether Avril will return to Europe — or to stages at all — after this current tour is still unknown, but we are already very much looking forward to a possible comeback.
A big thank you to the team at Charm Music, who made it possible for Mika to attend the making of this article officially, as part of the PRESS contingent, for the very first time.
Text: Denis Paradiž
Photos: Mika Paradiž
Avril Lavigne – setlist:
1. Girlfriend
2. What the Hell
3. Complicated
4. Smile
5. Here’s to Never Growing Up
6. Hot (partial)
7. My Happy Ending
8. He Wasn’t
9. Don’t Tell Me
10. Losing Grip
11. Bite Me
12. Love It When You Hate Me
13. All the Small Things (Blink‐182 cover)
14. Sk8er Boi
—encore—
15. Head Above Water
16. When You’re Gone
17. I’m With You
