Somewhere in my life as a consumer and lover of music, I developed an ugly habit of over-intellectualising everything I listen to. While I’ve always been a little heady, it seems like it’s easier and easier to fall into the trap of reflecting on the “art”, “intent”, and “meaning” of something without ever being able to articulate whether I enjoyed it. I often forget that, in a live setting, music is also a show – you’re supposed to feel good and have fun. I’m genuinely surprised when I say, with zero irony, that it took seeing Chad Kroeger and Nickelback to remind me.
Opening act The Pretty Reckless set a theatrical tone from the start with a tight 8-track set, pulling in equal measures from their two LPs, 2010’s Light Me Up and 2014’s Going To Hell. After an introduction of spooky Halloweeen sounds, the mighty band pulled into the chugging, bluesy metal of “Follow Me Down”. As the trio played around with speed and dynamics, frontwoman Taylor Momsen prowled up and down the stage, expertly adapting her mighty voice to the song’s twists and turns.
While Momsen’s IMDB credits still outnumber the notches in her band’s discography, it’s clear that she’s just as comfortable in front of crowds and squealing guitars as she is in front of the camera. With songs like heavy pop-rock standout “Miss Nothing” and its Peter and the Wolf-sampling lead-in (“one of our favourites,” she beamed) Momsen swayed and dug in to find the slinky quiet moments between guitarist Ben Phillips’ massive riffs. And yet, stomping around to early cut “Make Me Wanna Die”, “Going To Hell”, and closer “Messed Up World”, Momsen’s band and her giant voice proved that the over-the-top spirit of hair metal is still around and larger than life.
After The Pretty Reckless left the stage, I made use of the nearly 40 minute wait to check my gut and take inventory of how I feel about Nickelback. Since their breakthrough in 2000, the band has become heroes to millions of devoted followers and easy punchlines to countless jokes. And yet, though I’ve rolled my eyes over the years at singles like “How You Remind Me” and “Hero”, I’ve never really had any strong feelings towards Kroeger and the gang. In fact, when the Bell Centre lights dimmed again and the band came out with “A Million Miles an Hour” to a standing ovation, I was pretty excited to find out just how they’d managed to become so loathed and so loved by so many.
The band sounded tight, and the song was strong and confident. So far, perfectly harmless. And then, Kroeger announced that he was ready to “get into some sexual, naughty shit,” playfully yelled at the stagehand to “turn that fuckin’ fan off,” and played a song with the chorus: you look so much cuter / with something in your mouth. As the band smiled through workman-like riffs and lyrics that would make KISS blush, I asked myself an honest question: “are they serious?” And, as the group moved into the sentimental “Photograph” and paranoid “Edge of a Revolution”, I continued looking around me for some kind of clue as to what they were doing.
And then Kroeger started hucking cups of beer at the crowd while his band riffed on “Master Of Puppets”, and it suddenly all made sense: they were having fun.
As they careened through the shifting tones of pensive “How You Remind Me” (spiritual sister to Staind’s “It’s Been A While”) and the dumb-as-rocks/catchy-as-hell disco-funk of “She Keeps Me Up”, the surprising constant of Nickelback is just how much they put into their show. Even if the group’s songs sometimes struggle to impress (or, at times, distinguish themselves from one another), Kroeger’s goofy rock-star swagger and the band’s ongoing banter is actually infectious. Even more, peppering the set with classic-rock sing-alongs (Jackson Browne’s “Take It Easy”; The Tragically Hip’s “Blow At High Dough”), making references to his love for Montreal, and giving drummer Daniel Adair a Zeppelin-quoting birthday drum solo, it’s clear that Kroeger’s ego – genuine or affected – still plays second-string to his audience’s good vibes. For every “Far Away”, there’s an “Animals” and a “Rockstar” – and there seems to be an implicit contract between the band and their fans: stick with us, and you’ll have fun.
So, no: Nickelback probably aren’t all that serious in the end. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s good to have a moment of clarity, in a crowd that begs to be pelted with another Molson, chucked by a band that geekily owns their contribution to the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack, right before they play a song about sex in cars. Maybe I don’t have to be so serious all the time, either.
The Pretty Reckless
1 – Follow Me Down
2 – Since You’re Gone
3 – Miss Nothing
4 – Sweet Things
5 – Make Me Wanna Die
6 – Heaven Knows
7 – Going To Hell
8 – Messed Up World
Nickelback
1 – Million Miles an Hour
2 – Something In Your Mouth
3 – Photograph
4 – Hero
5 – Gotta Be Somebody
6 – Far Away
7 – Edge of a Revolution
8 – Master of Puppets / Walk
9 – Animals
10 – Someday
11 – Too Bad
12 – Moby Dick
13 – She Keeps Me Up
14 – Take It Easy
15 – Hotel California
16 – Rockstar
17 – When We Stand Together
18 – How You Remind Me
Encore
19 – Everlong
20 – Burn It To The Ground
Review – Dan Corber
Photos – Marlon Kuhnreich
