They Kick off the madness with
- SOMETHING IN YOUR MOUTH - the crowd is on thier feet in an instant and lovin' it, the video screens have various vixins lookin' pouty and seductive. The song begins and ends with fireworks literally and the vocal effects in the break portion are flawless. Nothing like blatant sexual innuendo at top volume to kick things off and set a tone
Chad asks "with something in your what?" and promises to keep the the rock coming fast before launching into the only real downer of the night for me..
- BECAUSE OF YOU - I didn't already know this song and it is kind of crappy compared to most of their other stuff, and the backing vocals by Ryan sounded awful, which is wierd because he did a great job throughout the night and on his solo spot in the encore, maybe problems with the monitors? In the later portion where Chad sings through the effects mic it sounded really ****ed up like Boba Fett on valium, anyway next up...
- PHOTOGRAPH - Chad mentioned that boobs were coming out after only the second song "getting things off to a good start", then proceeded to call COlumbus a cow-town in a backhanded way. He waxed poetic about high school for a bit bofore kicking it off. This is one of their big hits and they do a great live version full of energy that gets the whole crowd up and singing along, the video work on this is fun too, they run a moving photo montage of the band and crew from the past with intercut scenes of Columbus, and in the end the montage fades back and resolves into a photo mural of the 4 band members faces made of a thousand little pictures, very cool, this would be a great image for their T-shirts.
- FIGURED YOU OUT - aside from loud drunken conversation nearby this is another great one that the crowd loved, truely a classic tune, it doesn't get much more blatant than this
during the "freckles on your chest" the cameras flashed momentarily to a girl trying to flash the audience. And Chad changed the lyrics to include Pete and Mike in the lurid storyline and proclaimed "oh my god that looks gay" with much laughter. He starts to change the names again later in the song but breaks out laughing.
- SAVIN' ME - very nicely done with the addition of Timmy on guitar, great vocals by Ryan and Daniel as well. At the end of the song Chad goes over to Timmy to tell him that his brother, who is a member of the crew, is growing a great 70's porn mustache and proceeds to bring the brother out for verification on the big screen for everyone. "Kinda freddie mercury but in a creepy way, it's awesome though". The drunks near me had their own running commentary throughout. Chad also read a few signs in the audience "pull my ****ing hair" and "I still want your hard stuff".
- FAR AWAY - another slower tune and very well done, the whole crowd sings along. Timmy plays guitar and keys on this one. The effects mic is well done.
- HEY MAN NICE SHOT - lead vocal by Shaun from Seether - the pre-song banter is pretty juvenile but the song itself is great, the vocal strength is brutal. The drunks begin to sing a song that Nickelback already played, dipshits. The mix was dead on perfect and actually seemed to suit his vocals even better than Chad's. He changes the lyric to Hey Chad Nice Cock at one point.
- GOTTA BE SOMEBODY - their new rock anthem, sure to fill stadium PA systems at some point in the future. They did a good job, but the song is kinda lame to me. Most of the audience seemed to know it. "Whenever you get to see a wide variety of breasts on a daily basis, that's when you know you have a good job" - Chad Kroeger, 3/11/09
- IF EVERYONE CARED - a great song with new video footage that chronicals some great humanitarian people and groups including Bono, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Nelson Mandela and others with gripping factoids about each as they moved along and ended with an inspirational quote.
- THIS AFTERNOON - For this song the band moves out onto the small stage in the center of the arena. Daniels drumkit is durably bolted to a rack and flips up out of the stage, where it has been hanging upside down under the stage for the entire show so far. The guys play this in a mostly acoustic fashion like the studio cut. It is a very different sounding song from most of the NB catalog that I am familar with (which admittedly is pretty small) but a catchy fun summer fun type song. Audience reaction was mixed, they were going apeshit for being so close to the band but for the most part didn't seem to be singing along. Chad mentions that Ryan's parents are in attendance moments after commenting on the quantity and quality of the breasts being exposed in the audience.
- ROCKSTAR - A return to the big hits seemed to re-inspire the audience as they sang along and cheered wildly at the various rock and roll memorabilia that popped up on the screen. Artists ranged from AC-DC to Elton John with stops along the way to visit Jethro Tull, Kid Rock, Aerosmith, The Stones, MC5, Def Leppard, Staind, Bon Jovi, The Who and dozens more. The collage showed tons of backstage passes, concert photos and concert promo posters all the way back to the early 70's. It seemed like an homage to friends, mentors and idols. Julie excitedly pointed out to me that there were 5 different Bon Jovi passes (all of which she has in her collection) and 3 pictures of the band in the collage, it appeared that Kid Rock and Nickelback memorabilia ran second and third. Truly a concert song if there ever was one.
- THE T-SHIRT JAM - for this bit of the show the band riffs aimlessly and plays a bit of some Metallica while 4 members of the crew use high powered paintball guns modified to fire a rolled up T-shirt into the upper decks of the stadium, firing 30 or so shirts into the audience while the band plays. Tonight they wore Ohio State Buckeyes gear and the crowd loves it. You can hear the shirts fire off like little mortars.
- BURN IT TO THE GROUND - I think this is another new one and I like it pretty much, it is high energy and had the crowd on their feet.
- THE DANIEL RISETH - this is drum solo unlike anything I have seen at a rock show since Greg Bissonette circa 1985ish with DLR, Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan. This guy is a great drummer and he can sing too. tons of talent. OK his drum set on the main stage has a huge exhaust manifold coming out of the front of the drum riser with flared pipes stretching across the width of the stage that end in upturned sweeps about 8' above the stage and each about 2 feet in diameter, at various times during the show they spew fireworks, flames, smoke, and maybe lava and pixie dust too. During his solo the entire riser drives forward to the base of the catwalk and then the drum platform rises up out of the drum riser base (it is actually a scissors lift) to a height of about 12 feet or so then begins to rotate back and forth. All the while the lights are goin crazy and the video shows all his effort, it even has good closeups of his pedal technique. The band breaks into 30 seconds of heavy power chords to help him finish it off.
- HOW YOU REMIND ME - the crowd sings it for him and they love every minute, afterword Chad passes out drumsticks in exchange for breast exposure
, security caught a video taper somewhere above me and brought him down to the rail in front of me to frisk him and confiscate his recordings, they did a thorough full hands on pat down, groin included, turned out all his pockets, took the DVD from his camcorder and the memory card from his phone as well as his extra DVDs. I was a little wigged out and very glad I had left my recorder in my jacket.
- TOO BAD - the boys finish out the main set with another crowd pleaser though Chad has by this point done enough talking between songs to qualify for a spoken word Grammy, the effects mic is killer on this one. They end it with another barrage of fireworks.
Encore Begins with...
- USE SOMEBODY - Ryan takes the small stage by himself to sing this Kings of Leon cover very ably. Unfortunately I hadn't turned on my auxilary battery for my deck so the recording cuts off halfway through this song. At the end of the song Chad ****s up the chords and Daniel gives him some grief and tells him he is fired before they start..
- SOMEDAY - again Timmy joined them on guitar playing a 12 string intro and the crowd was exhausted but sated.
- ANIMALS - the piece de resistance of the evening was the closer and one of their biggest hits, with smoke shooting up out of the stage the boys left us in a rain of sonic thunder in their signature " this is how Nickelback says goodnight" which is a beastly cacopheny of aural rage followed by a salvo of proxy canonfire courtesy of the pyro crew. As the lights faded the arena was illuminated by several thousand cell phones all fighting to capture one more moment of a night to long be remembered.
Fast Facts:
approximate show length: 120 minutes
encore break: 4 minutes
total Chad talk time: 19 minutes , seriously!!
total talk time of drunks behind me (each): 1 hour, 15 minutes
ranking amongst all shows I have seen for video and effects: #1 (out of more than 200), Bon Jovi has better screen footage but this is tops overall.
ranking amongst shows I have seen for audio quality (fidelity): top 10, up there with Sting 91, Peter Gabriel 02, Bon Jovi Pittsburgh 00, Kid Rock 02
overall show ranking 1-10( 10 being best): 10
Total cost for 2 people: $327.00 and worth it.
See ya on the road
Dave