Nickelback Birmingham NIA 26th May 2009

First gig for a couple of months and it had to happen our eldest son Daniel's first gig. He was 10 in April and as a Nickelback fan and a little bit of a Black Stone Cherry fan as well, this gig just seemed right for him...and as Shaz loves Nickelback and BSC who am I to say no!!!!!

We could only get standing tickets so although Daniel is nearly 5 foot we got their early to be greeted by a 200 foot queue.We walked around and there were 4 queues all the same length.But once the doors opened we saw the band had a large walkway in the middle, so there was an extra length of front row. We managed to get dead centre of the walkway with only a young girl in front of us.Result!!

First on BSC.Quite a few BSC t shirts around.Less than a year ago we saw them support Def Snake and not a lot of people knew them, this time they did.Starting with Rain Wizard off their first cd they are growing every time you seem them.Then straight into Blind man off the new cd what a 1-2. A great reception from the crowd and great sound too.A few songs off cd 2(including Please Come In and Soul Creek!) then back to cd 1 for Lonely Train.I thought that was it before they played the soon to be huge single Things My Father Said then ended with Maybe Someday and a quick blast of Voodoo Chile!!40 minutes went so fast.Went down really well and so they grow.Go see them in October before the venues get bigger!!
Now Nickelback sold out an 8000 very young crowd!! We saw them in September and I said they were a great live act but Chad waffled on too long.Well this time he waffled but not so much he must read RockGig!!!! (who doesn't? - Ed)

If you go to www.darkhorsetour.com there is a lot of live footage from this tour and chats with roadies about the lights,pyro,etc.Well worth a look.They say they have taken the stage as far as they could go and then some. Well they really have.The stageset was enormous. There were 9 enormous Close Encounters Of The Third Kind type shapes that came down moved etc as part of the lighting rig.Over 500 flame thrower/pyro explosions,an enormous video screen behind the band that also moved for 60 searchlights!! Wow.Is it all show or have they got songs?

Countless hit singles all played superbly.They started with Something In Your Mouth off the new cd and then Because Of You off Long Road. Bang.How was that Daniel?Wow!!They changed it up by dragging Chris Robinson off BSC up to sing and play lead geetar on AC/DC'S Highway To Hell!!Excellent!

Halfway through they moved forward to the walkway and a drumkit came from under the stage and they played new single If Today Was Your Last Day and then onto Rockstar.Daniel loved it as they were no more than 6 foot in front of us!!
For the next single Burn It To The Ground they were filming it mainly the crowd and yes half way through Daniel and me were shown on the large screen!!I could be on MTV yet!!!!Last time we had T shirts propelled into the audience this time they had super charged the guns and could hit the whole arena with them!!That was played to Metallica's Sad But True!!Ending with the bouncy Too Bad.Wow.

A quick romp through Use Somebody by Kings Of Leon with second geetar man Ryan Peake on vox was the first encore.They ended with Animals and enough pyro to start a small war!!
I have to say they blew the Wembley show out of the water with this one.Chad was in great voice and not too much corn this time.Ably assisted by Ryan,Daniel(drums)and Mike on bass they know how to put on the ultimate arena show. I said to Daniel that you don't always see hundreds of lights,explosions and hit singles all the time.As he walked away with his tour t shirt on,carrying a tour poster and an enormous ear to ear grin did he care.Tonite Nickelback ruled!!
ME 10/10.

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