Canada/USA - Cohesion supported Avril Lavigne’s Greatest Hits tour across 66 dates in North America. The tour was a culmination of two decades of music for the Canadian-born artist, who has sold more than 40m albums and has received eight Grammy Award nominations.
Vocal intelligibility was of paramount importance on the tour, and Cohesion PA was selected. FOH engineer Paul David Hager explained: “We had to get that vocal to sit right and to be warm and clear - if the vocal doesn’t connect, the rest of it almost doesn’t matter. Cohesion is clear, it’s flexible, and it’s powerful.”
Production manager Adam ‘Cutlets’ Richards described how Hager specified Cohesion for this tour. “I trust his judgment above all. From the moment I heard it, it was dialled in. It sounded great from day one.”
The PA, deployed by Clair Global, featured 16 CO12 per side on the main hangs with 16 Cohesion CO10 on each side hang. Three to six Cohesion CP218 subwoofers were flown per side in cardioid configuration with an additional three to six per side on the ground. An additional Cohesion CP118+ was utilised on the riser behind the drummer.
“It’s mind-boggling what comes out of a small number of subs,” said system engineer Ted Kujawski. “They’re thunderous. They’re rock solid.” Hager added, “You can walk behind the system, and with the rejection off the back, it sounds like it’s being muted.”
On either side of the stage, three Cohesion CO8 were used for fill to cover the energised crowd in the front sections, and two Cohesion CP6+ provided near-field monitoring.
For the 2025 edition of the tour, Kujawski split mixing duties with Hager, and Kenny Hottenstein joined as a system engineer.
The Greatest Hits tour sold out dozens of arenas and amphitheatres across North America in 2024 and 2025, and the Cohesion PA delivered Lavigne’s trademark songs with clarity.
“It had to sound intimate to 20,000 listeners in the room, and it had to sound good even at the back of the arena,” said Hager. “You can cover a lot with less. It feels louder without being any louder. It’s pretty impressive.”