Nostalgia Takes Over A Sold-Out Armory with Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan

Photos by Laura Buhman

I’ve been feeling burnt out lately. I could have had my week filled with some fantastic local shows. Instead, I spent the majority of my week just working and chilling. It’s not a bad thing. We all need a break sometimes, but it’s not like me to pass up on shows and opt to stay home. I needed a show to snap me out of me. I needed something to wow me and remind me why I chose to do this night after night with a smile on my face. Was Thursday night’s show at the Armory going to be the show to do it?

Things kicked off with girlfriends. I’m pretty sure I saw girlfriends years ago, but, honestly, I can’t find anything in my past posts about the shows or anything online, so maybe I’m just making that up. Regardless, I loved how this opening act kicked the night off by not holding anything back. This classic pop-punk band was started by Nick Gross and Travis Mills (FKA T. Mills) and is genuinely keeping the pop-punk vibe of the early 2000s alive. Their set on Thursday night was quick, but it packed a punch as the band powered through a set of nine songs that seemed to be banger after banger. Other than a super fun cover of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” girlfriends relied on their own catchy and anthemic bops to fill the giant venue and pulled it off. The band had me dancing along to the songs I knew, like “California” and “Jessica,” but also had me wanting to listen to some of the songs I didn’t recognize (like “Shut Up and Kiss Me” and “I Thought About You While I Was Taking a Shower”) on repeat. I know I have a lot of work to do today, but I see today becoming a giant girlfriends jam kind of day for me, and honestly, I’m not mad about that.

Where were you in 2002? Do you even remember? I was in middle school and distinctly remember snatching up Simple Plan’s debut album ‘No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls’ at my local record store, snickering at its title and then playing it repeatedly for years after. Honestly, I thought it was such a brilliant album. It had everything from emotion to fun to serious ballad-like tracks to songs that make you want to dance. I won’t say that this album changed my life, but I will say that that album, along with the following five albums from Simple Plan, are all staples in the daily playlist of my life, so to see this influential pop-punk band on Thursday night at the age of thirty-five was truly something special.

Even though this Quebec-born pop-punk band has been doing their thing for twenty-five years at this point, I can solidly say that they still have it. The band came out on the massive stage and jumped into a twelve-song set that showcased every side of the group. It started with the complete nostalgic bop of “I’d Do Anything” before moving onto a few covers and ending with an absolutely touching performance of their more ballad-like angsty teenage anthem, “Perfect.” Without being too cheesy, it was, in fact, “Perfect.” I loved how the band still sings the same words that relate more to a teenager than a middle-aged man with the same amount of gusto because, at the end of their day, their music is for the people, not for them. Again, I know it’s cheesy, but I think I just genuinely appreciate that this band has not changed. They do what they do, and they do it well, so why change it due to age? Even for us elder emos in the audience, it was still so fun to shout out the words to “I’m Just a Kid” even though, as the t-shirts at the merch table stated, “I’m Just an Adult” would be a bit more reasonable to be singing these days.

Although both girlfriends and Simple Plan were absolutely amazing on Thursday night, they were not the reason for the sold-out and uber-excited audience. The reason for that was the one and only motherf*$(ing princess- Avril Lavigne. Love or hate her, Avril set the world on fire with her pop-punk tunes in the early 2000s. Her 2002 album ‘Let Go’ was monumental for my life and the lives of so many other women around my age. Although I don’t typically admit it, that album is one that I revisit from time to time. Sure, Avril lost me as she started to dabble in other genres and go into a more mature and, honestly, snoozy style, but that doesn’t change the fact that Avril’s music soundtracked an entire era of my life, so to see that play out on the stage in front of me was perfect– or at least it should have been.

Energy-wise, the set started off strong, with Avril kicking off with her super infectious and boppy hit “Girlfriend,” but within just a couple of seconds, I felt that something was off. The vocals didn’t sound right, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that the energy I felt was that of those around me, not energy radiating off the stage. I shook it off and sang my heart out with some friends as she moved from “Girlfriend” into “What the Hell,” but, eventually, the magic of singing along wore off. I tried my best to hide the emotions running through my head, but my face isn’t the kind to hide everything, and my friends quickly called me out. They knew I wasn’t into it, and as they stopped singing and living in their nostalgia-fueled cloud, they realized why.

Avril was struggling. It wasn’t just her struggling with the vocals (although that was something that seemed to plague all seventeen songs of her set); it was the energy– or lack thereof. I understand that this woman is going through a lot. She was diagnosed with Lyme disease back in 2014 and has been dealing with it ever since, but if you’re going on a tour, I feel like that means you are in a spot to be performing and giving audiences around the world your best– I don’t think Avril fits that description. The performance felt tired and phoned in, with her backing band doing a lot of the heavy lifting and leaving many gaps in the vocals for the audience to fill in.

I wanted to love Avril’s set, but, really, the only highlight of her set was when she was joined by the member of Simple Plan where they played Simple Plan’s hit song “Addicted” to cover and then, right after that, when girlfriends and Pierre of Simple Plan joined Avril for a cover of Blink 182’s “All the Small Things.” Beyond that, as gorgeous as Avril looked, her set just didn’t hit the mark with me, and I’m not the only one who felt that. At the end of the day, I spent Avril’s set singing and dancing like a fool surrounded by my friends but left feeling a bit empty and hollow. On my drive home, I realized that I felt a bit cheated. This show had just been a money grab of sorts for Avril, and it broke my heart. If you’re going to do something, do it with all of your heart– those are words I live by, and I don’t think that is at all what Avril did.

All in all, Thursday night was not a complete loss. I found a new love for girlfriends and remembered the joy of being “just a kid.”