Nickelback - LG Arena
By Debbie Bennett
2004 - It still rings in my head as being the loudest gig I’d ever donned my rock-chick top for, and I was thankful I’d packed earplugs for my seven-year-old son who was quite unprepared for the balcony-shaking volume.
The band were new Canadians-on-the-block, Nickelback, who were happily blasting the ears off fans who packed Wolverhampton Civic Hall four years ago.
The post-grunge band formed in Alberta in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until How You Remind Me from their third album Silver Side Up, hit the top spot in the US and Canada in 2001, that rock fans here started to sit up and take notice.
And if I thought their onslaught of tunes last night would be lost in the void of the rebranded LG Arena, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The rockers are the first to play at the former NEC Arena since it’s name change, and leapt in front of the sell-out crowd after an intro of Motley Crue’s Girls Girls Girls and an ear-splitting bang, launching straight into Animals, followed by their hit nostalgia song Photograph.
A suberb mix of album tracks followed, interspersed with fireworks, jets of flames and sexy frontman Chad Kroeger’s cheerful banter with the fans.
“Here’s one for the ladies,” he crooned, as the Vancouver-based foursome played the ballad Far Away.
The setlist was an attention-getting mix of hard rock and smoother acoustic-led tracks, and included guitarist Ryan Peake providing a superb vocal cover of Elton John’s Saturday Night¹s Alright For Fighting, rocked up with his stunning Flying V.
Side of a Bullet provided a moving tribute to metal band Panthera’s “Dimebag” Darrel who was shot dead on stage in 2004.
Other highlights were How You Remind Me, If Everyone Cared, Savin’ Me and a Daniel Adair drum solo on an unintentionally comical moving platform that resembled a hostess trolley!
At one point, T-shirts fired into the crowd from “cannons” operated by a series of onstage volunteers, and plastic cups half-filled with beer and tossed to fans, some of which were rather expertly caught.
The band finished their main set with the superb Too Bad and, in anticipation of the encore, this was the only time the cardboard-cutout seated crowd could be bothered to make a real noise.
Of course, we were treated to the hit song Rockstar, made famous recently due to its employment on the DFS television ad.
“Do you know what it’s like to have your song used on a sofa ad?” joked Kroeger. “Do you realise what rockstars do on their sofas?!”
Although presumably the TV version is minus the lyric “everybody’s got a drug dealer on speed dial”.
Figure You Out finished off the superb night along with more fireworks, jets of dry ice and flames from which the heat could be felt from a hundred feet away.
Nickelback are a superb bunch of entertainers, with accurately-honed harmonies, tight rock riffs, jokery and quite a bit of swearing - all totally necessary when we all just wanna be big rock stars.
The only gripes from last night were the seated crowd, most of whom might as well have been watching the band on TV, and a poorly positioned screen at the back of the stage which was completely obscured to many in the side the seating areas by the arena’s giant speakers.
And please, LG, do something to liven up your flat, warm cola.
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10 Comments
You forgot to mention the fact Staind, another fantastic band, were supporting Nickelback. They are another of my personal favourite bands and I only found out they were supporting Nickelback half an hour before setting out to the arena. Both bands were mind-blowing and made for one of the best nights i’ve had in years. I would’ve happily paid to see Staind in their own concert but instead I got to see my second favourite band supporting my favourite band, all in one fantastic night! talk about a stroke of luck!
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nickelback are the worst band in the world, closely followed by the funeral dirge of staind.
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Dont know where debbie was sitting, certainly not in block 16 where everyone was standing and rocking, great night , both bands were absolutely awesome ……
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PS , they were better than when they supported bon jovi two years ago.
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I was in the seating area to the left of the stage, and I wanted to stand up and jump around right from the beginning when staind opened with ‘price you pay’, it wasnt until ‘too bad’ that people started standing and jumping around. Still, awesome night and the best concert I’ve been to by far. I would even consider seeing them again in London. Would definately have to be standing though. Staind playing in January is one to look forward to, and with Seether supporting should be awesome.
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unfortunately i was one of the seated crowd so could i just say we enjoyed the band just as much as anyone but couldn’t stand up and jump arround for fear of upsetting people behind and as i,ve also seen them whilst standing you automaticaly change the way you behave according to weather you’re seated or not. a fantastic night and can’t wait for the next tour but in a way hope its a smaller venue as the lg is far too big and very little can be seen at the back, but luckily we found 2 unclaimed seats near the front.
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I thought the interaction with the crowd was very good especially the apology to the child for swearing, hilarious. In fact, they were so good at the LG I got hold of tickets to go and see them in Wembley on Sunday.
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We were in the seats and everyone in our block was standing and rockin’ - there were warnings posted up around the venue (and printed on the tickets) stating that people may be standing in the seated area - so too bad to anyone who goes to a rock concert and expects everyone to be seated all evening - if that’s what people want then they should buy the dvd and stay at home!
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We had a great night, what a way to spend our Anniversary. Nickelback were fantastic, the whole concert was far more than we expected. Unfortunately we were seated also, and we were willing the couple in front to stand up, but they just sat there like lemons ( i think the couple next to me were asleep they didn’t sing along all night). As Debi said it did state that people would be standing, and we both wish that we had done sooner, it makes it much more enjoyable when you can dance about. Chad has a great sense of humour, and he spoke to some people who were lucky enough to be standing. This was our 1st Nickelback concert, but it wont be our last, can’t wait for the new album and we’ll be 1st in the queue for tickets next time.
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It Was Such A Great Concert
I Went With My Cousin And We Were In The “cardboard-cutout seated crowd”
We Both Wanted To Jump Around And Cheer But Every Time We Tried We Had People Telling Us To Sit Down
So Its Not Like We Didn’t Want To Cus We Wanted To Be More Involved But It Was The “Older” People That Wouldn’t Allow Us
Soo Obviously The Goon Who Posted The Article Didn’t Take Everything Into Account
PS NICKELBACK RULED!!!!!!!!!
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