The show began in darkness to the strains of ominous classical music, a suitably portentous introduction for Avril Lavigne, who might have turned 20 last September but is still the reigning queen of teen melodrama.

Strange then that when the pint-sized Canadian bounded onto the stage all perky and blonde, she bore more resemblance to Buffy the Vampire Slayer than the moody goth-edged skater girl of just a few years ago.

Although Lavigne’s relatively poor-selling second album Under My Skin has just as many anthemic songs of angst and anger as her smash debut, 2002’s Let Go, it seems Lavigne herself is a lot less troubled.

And a lot less interested in what she is doing.

Lavigne’s interaction with her band and audience was limited to an occasional "you guys are awesome!" or a brief venture into her guitarist’s spotlight.

She was singing songs that in the space of three years have achieved the status of classics, and in fact were already classics the day they were released, but she sang them as if they were someone else’s classics, lazily running through hits like Sk8er Boi or I’m With You with a blank, listless detachment. AdvertisementAdvertisement

Perhaps because perched on a piano stool her body language couldn’t so easily give away her boredom, Lavigne’s baby grand renditions of Together and Forgotten provided two of the night’s more emotionally sincere moments. The surprise rendition of Green Day’s American Idiot also promised real fire, but halfway through, Lavigne retired to the back of the stage and turned her back on the audience for a quiet drink of water.

After a lengthy break, the band returned for a pedestrian run through of Blur’s Song 2 with Lavigne behind the drum kit.

The show finished as tritely as it had begun, with her best known song, Complicated.