July and August of 2008 had a lot of foreign artists do concerts in the Philippines with the likes of Simple Plan, Daughtry, Lifehouse, and even 80s British pop sensation Rick Astley. Yet September will not be any less exciting especially as it starts rocking with a huge concert by Canadian singer and songwriter Avril Lavigne at the Araneta Coliseum this Wednesday, September 3, to promote her third and latest album The Best Damn Thing (and the concert is part of her worldwide The Best Damn Tour).

If you're eyeing to get tickets, it's probably too late since I'm guessing the sellable tickets would have been sold out by now. If you're lucky you can probably snag some of the last-minute tickets that will be given away by partner radio stations for their on-air promos. (Or hope that you know any employee who works at Araneta Center since they often get complimentary tickets, according to my officemate whose sister has a boyfriend who is one of the said Araneta Center employees. Hehehe.)

Avril Lavigne first came to the Philippines on March 31, 2005 as part of her Bonez Tour which promoted her sophomore album Under My Skin. During that concert held at Fort Bonifacio, the opening act was Simple Plan (it's probably a coincidence that Simple Plan had their own solo concert last August 4, 2008, a month before Avril's second concert here). Anyway, my older sister gave my younger sister a ticket to that concert as a birthday gift since she's a huge Avril fan. I happened to be at the Bonifacio Stop-over eating dinner at Chowking that night and I got to hear part of the concert, though the sound was of course lousy at that distance.

Shown below is the setlist of the Araneta concert according to Wikipedia, though basing on her previous concerts in the tour, the setlist is not set in stone. Many of the songs come from the album (marked below with asterisks) including all of the album's four singles, especially the ultra-popular "Girlfriend". Other songs include hits from her previous two albums. It's amusing to note that Avril is including a cover of Toni Basil's "Mickey", to which "Girlfriend" has often been compared with.

1. "Girlfriend"*
2. "I Can Do Better"*
3. "Complicated"
4. "My Happy Ending"
5. "I'm With You"
6. "I Always Get What I Want"
7. "When You're Gone"*
8. "Innocence"*
9. "Don't Tell Me"
10. "Hot"*
11. "Losing Grip"
12. "Bad Reputation"
13. "Everything Back But You"*
14. "Runaway"*
15. "Hey Mickey"
16. "The Best Damn Thing"*
17. "I Don't Have to Try"*
18. "He Wasn't"
19. "Girlfriend (Dr. Luke Remix)"*
20. "Sk8er Boi"

Here are other links about the Avril Lavigne and the concert:

• ClickTheCity.com event page
• Ricky Lo's interview with Avril for her concert