Middle school me went wild when I saw Avril Lavigne and All Time Low on the same ticket. Current-day me decided I wanted to go when I saw that Royal & the Serpent was opening. 

Lavigne’s new “The Greatest Hits Tour” has already proven that there is still a current space in the music world for her music and the music of the 2000s as well as other music inspired by that era. 

Avril Lavigne

Opening with “Girlfriend,” “What the Hell” and “Complicated” at first seemed like a bold choice throwing out three of the biggest songs right off the bat. However, what it ended up doing was getting all the fans to that next level of hype for the rest of her set. If they had been primed before, they were definitely revving their engines after the opening. There were a couple of technical issues that happened early on in the set, but instead of distracting from the experience, they showed that the performance was real and dare I say authentic. 

Her show felt like a concert I could have seen 15 years ago but in a good way. The vibe and energy stayed true to her style and image. It didn’t try to be anything that it wasn’t or try to be an overly modern take.

During the set, she played songs from each of

her seven albums and discussed how each album relates to a different part of her life and how playing them brings her back to that era.

All Time Low

Over the years All Time Low has released music that is all very different approaches to pop punk with older work like “So Wrong, It’s Right” playing more into the classic/ iconic pop punk. Their newer work like “Tell Me I’m Alive” has a very different more modern sound but still within the Pop Punk sphere. Their performance seemed to play into more of an updated current tone, much like their new music. 

The performance was energetic and definitely primed the audience for Lavigne to come on stage. 

Royal & the Serpent 

Royal & the Serpent did great! However, they fell to a blight that many openers at big shows do. Even though they have fame and popularity of their own, the set they performed was 30 minutes long and they were given minimal stage resources. However, they still put on a solid performance and many members of the crowd were singing along to the music.