As the opening act, Breaking Benjamin started strong enough to almost steal the entire show. Somehow melding insanely pounding guitar licks with thumping bass and the deep shouting vocals of lead singer Benjamin Burnley, Breaking Benjamin pulled off a live show veteran performers would have been proud of. Although about a quarter of the crowd was missing, most everyone in the stadium was getting into the heavy bass riffs and crashing cymbals.
At one point, four songs into their set, Three Days Grace singer Adam Gontier joined Burnley on stage. The crowd ate up every minute of this and demanded Three Days Grace. Fortunately for them, Breaking Benjamin was not done yet. Turning out another handful of thunderous songs and ending with "So Cold," Breaking Benjamin set the tone for the rest of the concert. It would rock hard.
As the last chord, somehow sustained for an inordinate amount of time, resonated long after Breaking Benjamin exited, the house lights came up. The live hard rock was replaced over the speakers by much a mellower ZZ Top number, the once teeming mass became a well organized pack of polo clad college students, children adorned in newly purchased Nickelback shirts and nine-to-five parents wearing leather pants and vests. They went to buy snow cones and hotdogs and beer and wait for the next set to come on.
And come on they did. Three Days Grace rocked even louder than Breaking Benjamin. Playing songs more familiar with the crowd, Gontier urged the crowd to get out of their chairs and "get those devil horns in the air." Although they had a great start, the energy and excitement waned about half way through; the listeners lost focus and become anxious for Nickelback. Toward the end of their set, as the audience really started to fill in, Three Days Grace picked up where they had started from and ended with a couple great numbers, redeeming themselves, before exiting the stage.
After Three Days Grace, the drastic change in demeanor of the audience did not happen. Although there were subtle differences, the air still buzzed with anticipation of the main act and the crowd accepted that they did not have to be themselves anymore. Nickelback was tonight's drug of choice and the audience was frenzied.
Boom. Out of nowhere a cannon blast echoed through the arena, causing the entire audience to simultaneously flinch and clap. With ringing still in our ears, another cannon shot boomed, a curtain fell and the heavy opening riff of "Animals" ripped though the air. Halfway though the song, lead singer Chad Kroeger stopped and introduced, to thunderous applause, Nickelback.
Although the show was billed as promoting "All the Right Reasons," Nickelback's new album, the set of songs resembled a greatest hits CD or even what might be played at a reunion tour. By playing all the highlights of their career,
Nickelback urged the crowd to sing every verse and chorus. The band fed on the crowd's response.
And, if the song choice was not enough, the pyrotechnics were amazing. Using towering flames, fireworks and sparklers, Nickelback impressed even the cynics in the audience. The ambience of their set, rough and dangerous, fit perfectly with the Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace lead-up.
At one point, all of Nickelback, except drummer Daniel Adair, left the stage. Adair's drum set was brought to the stage-front for one of the more spectacular drum solos I have ever seen. Starting slow, a lot of the audience sat in their seats to rest legs tired from standing for the past hour. As he warmed up, Adair incorporated stick spins and louder bass thumps into his routine. Soon he was using both ends of his drum sticks to create a high intensity roll effect. With the audience getting impatient, Adair slowed the speed and started juggling his sticks while still playing with both ends. Slowly the tempo crept up past dizzying and into the upper stratosphere. The audience stood shouting and cheering, impressed with his percussive prowess. When the solo ended, the crowd erupted into applause.
After their last song, Nickelback left the stage to a massive amount of applause. The applause, though, did not go away. Instead, it crescendoed into an avalanche of sound, rivaling even Nickelback's deafening bass. The crowd demanded more music and more music they would get. Nickelback walked back onstage and blasted out two more numbers, ending with their new "Rockstar." The audience erupted at the final chord, cheering for more as Kroeger wished everyone a good night.
I was left in awe. Images of the last blast of fireworks danced around my seared retinas. Smoke hung 15 feet deep in the air. I was out of breath and impressed at Nickelback's tenacious intensity. I tried to shake the stuffy bells out of my ears and pushed my way outside to a crisp night.
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