Member Review: Nickelback

Here's BPD member 24x7's promised review:

Working a stage whose floor resembled the insides of a grandfather clock, Nickelback started with This Means War (not the far better AC/DC song of the same name) with three video screens behind them and the near-capacity audience on its feet. From there the suggestive, hard-charging Something In Your Mouth had the lyrics onscreen for some massive karaoke.

Or perhaps in the event lead singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger, dressed in black from head to toe, turned his back to the audience.

“Thank you,” Kroeger said, adding the group brought a rock and roll show back into town and would throw a few surprises later. One non-surprise though was Photograph, the first of a handful of ballads which put things in cruise control. The same could be said for the crowd-pleasing Far Away which had an additional guitarist brought on stage.

Using lasers and flames to drive home the hard-rock, radio-friendly numbers, Nickelback tore into the meaty Never Again off 2001's Silver Side Up. The group would then play a mini-set on a rotating stage which rose up and slid over to a landing pad at the venue's rear. Beginning with the crunchy Bottoms Up the band (aboard “Nickelback Airlines”) offered up Rockstar with Kroeger drowned out at times with one fan holding a sign reading “4 Shows, 12 Days, Priceless.”

Returning to home base during Animals as Kroeger held out a small camera which showed the crowd, Nickelback opted for an artsy moon backdrop for Lullaby with guitarist Ryan Peake tickling the ivories.

“Everybody having a good f—king time?” Kroeger asked before the warm, roots-riddled When We Stand Together which was the evening's high point. However the ensuing How You Remind Me (after a Daniel Adair drum solo) came out without much of a hitch and much fanfare.

The encore consisted of the power pop Gotta Be Somebody before concluding in a blaze of pyrotechnical glory during Figured You Out with flames, fireworks and explosions galore like the olden days.

Backstage, the band was really friendly. There were 8 BPD members there and we all had one helluva time.

Setlist: Nickelback

BPD member 24x7 sent us this from a recent Nickelback show. We extracted a promise from him to quickly followup with a full review.

Setlist

This Means War

Something In Your Mouth

Never Again

Photograph

Far Away

Bottoms Up

Rockstar

Someday

Animals

Lullaby

When We Stand Together

How You Remind Me

Burn It To The Ground

Gotta Be Somebody

Here's a video clip.

Big Nickelback Tour

Later this week, Nickelback will announce its return to the US arena circuit in support of its seventh studio album – Here And Now. The band hasn't toured in 2 years.

Bush, Seether and My Darkest Days appear on all dates.

Here are all the dates and venues:

Tue 04/10/12 Moline, IL I Wireless Center
Thu 04/12/12 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
Sat 04/14/12 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
Sun 04/15/12 Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
Thu 04/19/12 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena
Tue 04/24/12 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
Wed 04/25/12 Pittsburgh, PA Consol Energy Center
Fri 04/27/12 Hartford, CT XL Center
Sat 04/28/12 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Mon 04/30/12 Washington, DC Verizon Center
Wed 05/02/12 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
Fri 05/04/12 Orlando, FL Amway Center
Sat 05/05/12 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
Sun 05/20/12 Fargo, ND Fargodome
Tue 05/22/12 Omaha, NE CenturyLink Center Omaha
Wed 05/23/12 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
Fri 05/25/12 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
Sat 05/26/12 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
Tue 05/29/12 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
Wed 05/30/12 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
Fri 06/01/12 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
Sat 06/02/12 Houston, TX Toyota Center
Tue 06/05/12 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
Thu 06/07/12 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
Fri 06/08/12 Wichita, KS Intrust Bank Arena
Sun 06/10/12 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
Tue 06/12/12 Salt Lake City, UT EnergySolutions Arena
Fri 06/15/12 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
Mon 06/18/12 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion At San Jose
Wed 06/20/12 Nampa, ID Idaho Center
Thu 06/21/12 Portland, OR Rose Garden Arena
Sat 06/23/12 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
Sun 06/24/12 Spokane, WA Spokane Arena

Big Green Winners

Every now and then, we like to place our fingers back on the pulse of the industry and see who is pulling in the big tour money. Usually, there are more than a few surprises on the list.

From tapping in to our network of concert promoters and venue managers, here's the most recent picture of who's pulling in the big green.

In reverse order from #20, they are:

20 James Taylor
19 New Kids On The Block
18 Slipknot
17 Celtic Woman
16 Yanni Voices: Live In Concert
15 Kings Of Leon
14 Jeff Dunham
13 Motley Crue
12 Lil' Wayne
11 Neil Young
10 Il Divo
9 Leonard Cohen
8 Nickelback
7 Kenny Chesney
6 Fleetwood Mac
5 The Dead
4 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
3 Eagles
2 Britney Spears

Can you guess who's Numero Uno? Drumroll please.....................

1 Elton John / Billy Joel

Backstage passes to these artists and so many more are within your reach at BackstagePassDirect. Join today.

Member Review: Nickelback

Member Nicklmaniac wrote:

Nickelback has spent years dodging the slings and arrows -- not to mention knives, bottles, bricks and small mammals -- launched at them by an outraged music press.

Despite the insistence of music press tastemakers that Nickelback is quite simply the worst thing ever to be recorded on to any audio format, the band continues to sell boatloads of CDs. Why? you ask.

Chad Kroeger told me back in 2000 when Nickelback was touring its second album, The State, people just want to hear something they can sing along to in the car. That's really it; the group's songs are catchy.

Simplistic, sure, but he was onto something as almost a decade later Nickelback is one of the most successful rock bands of the past 20 years.

Last night's show featured a few songs from Nickelback's latest release, Dark Horse, which rode off with Album of the Year at last weekend's Juno Awards.

But it was the hits that the crowd came to hear and Nickelback delivered them -- Photograph, Savin' Me, Figured You Out and Far Away were just a few that got the audience on their feet during the first half of the show.

The band loves its pyrotechnics and used them several times throughout the show, including the first song, Something In Your Mouth.

Chad, along with brother and bass player Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake and drummer Daniel Adair played with an impressive energy and confidence.

It's really funny. The band really does have some of the worst lyrics in modern rock history. Something In Your Mouth and Figured You Out are the worst offenders, bearing the brunt of Kroeger's ham-fisted double entendres and somewhat sexist humour. But I will give Kroeger credit for standing his ground and making music for the everyman when he's been told time and again it's not the cool thing to do.

The "Meet and Greet" with the band was a little shorter than I would have liked, but I enjoyed the time very much and was able to catch up with them about what's been happening over the last 9 years.

I've read a couple of reviews here recently where the writer forget to give props to BackstagePassDirect. Not me. BPD - you're Numero Uno!

Back atcha Nicklmaniac.

For those of you who are getting psyched up for this great concert season, BackstagePassDirect is the way to go for getting backstage to hang with your favorite bands. If you haven't already, join today!

Spring Tours Roll Out

While the weather may not yet be Spring-like in your part of the country, things are heating up here in the offices of BackstagePassDirect.

The phones are ringing off the hook with promoters calling in their tour schedules for the coming months. It's going to be a great concert season in 2009 with performances by:

• 3 Doors Down
• Avenged Sevenfold
• Blue October
• Bruce Springsteen
• Cruefest
• Disturbed
• Dropkick Murphys
• Jagermeister Music Tour
• Kings of Leon
• Metallica
• Motley Crue
• Nickelback
• No Doubt
• Phish
• Slipknot
• SnoCore Tour
• Taste of Chaos
• The Dead
• The Eagles
• The Killers
• The Pretenders

and many, many other great bands.

If you never seen a live show from backstage before, if you've never hung out with a so-called "rock star", this is your chance. BackstagePassDirect has the passes you want to have. Our members see great concerts from the back of some of the finest venues in the country.

You can too; join today.