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.

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.

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