She may have gotten married, ditched the tie and skateboard, but at her concert at The Venetian last month, she proved she was still a kid at heart.

With an all-girl dancing troop, pink scull and cross bone backdrop, pink drum kit and polo-tee and hoodie outfits, Avril was more wholesome Powerpuff Girl than angsty teenager with a chip on her shoulder.

In fact, the pink-streaked blond had a big smile on her face, that rarely left. Perhaps it was the fact that she was celebrating her 24th birthday that very night. But maybe, she had found her niche, as a role model for the younger generation, many of which came to the 3/4 full Cotai Arena wearing bright pink outfits, including a pink ballerina tutu.

Kicking off the concert with her latest hit Girlfriend, she had the crowd of mostly teenagers, children and parents squealing at the top of their lungs. And it was interesting to see that despite the ‘Girlpower” theme also had a lot of teenage boys singing along enthusiastically.

Girlfriend, which has received non-stop airplay in MTV and the radio, received a second airing - the remix version, with Avril’s troop of dancers showing off their break dancing moves.

She then turned back the clock with more mellow tracks from her break out album Let Go and Under My Skin.  The enthusiastic response from the crowd earned them an earnest “do jeh” (thank-you in Cantonese) from Avril after most songs.

At times it seemed like a sing-along comedy session with Avril not letting the language barrier getting in the way of interacting with her adoring audience. Simple games like raising her arms to start the music, and dropping them to stop it, accompanied with a cheeky grin earned her raucous applause.

She also gained brownie points from the appreciative audience when she showed off her musical abilities by singing while playing the guitar and playing the piano. So when she asked the audience if they wanted her to play the drums - they responded with a deafening “yes!!”.

For the record, she’s a good multitasker, balancing the instrument playing and singing skills well.

In the second half of the show, she intrduced her “special guest”, who turned out to be none other than Deryck Whibley, the lead singer of US pop punk Sum41 and Avril’s husband.

Although Deryck helped produce Avril’s latest album The Best Damn Thing, he took the limelight at her concert, playing Sum41’s biggest hit, In Too Deep, which is ironically about breaking up with someone. No hidden meaning here, as the 2 have been inseparable since they tied the knot in 2006, and had attended Cirque Du Soleil’s Zaia at The Venetian the night before.

After over an hour of performance, Avril came back in a hooded sweater with pointy ears to perform a song that had a lot of special meaning to her. “Complicated”, she explained was her breakout song and the one that first thrust her into the media spotlight, so it was only fitting that she ended the night with a rousing rendition.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 11:03 am and is filed under Activities, Casinos, Events, Macau, Nightlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.