Chill out, what ya yelling for? That's the question that the embarrassed Tampa Bay Rays should have thrown back at Avril Lavigne after the punk rawker let loose some profanities during the team's summer concert series at Tropicana Field on Saturday night. Instead the red-faced Rays just apologized directly to their fans in a statement on Sunday. Said spokesman Rick Vaughn (via The Heater):
So what was Lavigne yelling for? Was it because the native Canadian still has a soft-spot for her Blue Jays and the Rays lead them in the current AL East standings? Was she suffering from withdrawal from her normal mall habitat of Hot Topics and Orange Juliuses? Good guesses, but no. In reality, her salty language was reportedly aimed at the fans who booed the technical difficulties that occurred during the singer's first song.
Between her swear words, Lavigne reportedly noted that live shows — especially those at a "baseball stadium" — have a tendency to feature a few glitches. As someone who suffered through George Thorogood's set after a Pittsburgh Pirates game last August, I can attest to that. (I also would have cheered anything that blocked Lavigne's music from being disseminated further, but that's just me.)
Still, Avril should have known better because this was a family atmosphere the Rays were paying her tor perform at. And it was filled with the very same families that Lavigne and her marketing companies have targeted over the past decade by being just the right kind of punk rawk dangerous (which is, to say, usually not dangerous at all). Were words she uttered probably no worse than the kids in the expensive seats hear from the ballplayers on the field all the time? Probably not, but that still doesn't excuse refusing to drop even a quick "earmuffs!" before her tirade.