Gig Review: Nickelback - Wembley Arena ✭✭✭✭

NICKELBACK

WEMBLEY ARENA

Monday 8th October: After announcing the Here and Now UK tour, Nickelback decided to add an extra night, and it happened to be this night at Wembley Arena. They started off the tour in London; toured around the UK and ended up back up in London to finish it all off, and they definitely ended it with a bang.

Supporting Nickelback on their UK tour, were American rock band, Daughtry. A great way to start the show, they gave an electrifying performance, getting the audience well and truly pumped. The band is formed and fronted by Chris Daughtry (vocals/guitars), who came fourth in American Idol. Joining him on the stage was; John Paul (bass), Josh Steely (guitar), Brian Craddock (guitar) and Robin Diaz (drums). They performed 9 songs, which included 2 singles from their first album It’s Not Over, the first ‘It’s Not Over’ and secondly ‘Home’, which was a huge crowd pleaser. They also performed ‘No surprise’, an anthem sounding song, which was actually co- written by Chad Kroeger. Daughtry gave a great and fearless performance.

After a short break, Nickelback eventually took to the stage. Blasting out the first three tunes; ‘This Means War’, ‘Something In Your Mouth’ and ‘Bottoms Up’. Chad made the first introduction, talking about it being the last night of the UK tour, and that he was going to be reaching a certain level of intoxication, and expected everyone else to do the same. So the shots started to flow. “Wembley are we gonna party tonight?” was greeted with a resounding “Yes” from the audience.

One of my favourite songs of the night was the rock ballad ‘Trying Not To Love You’ which is a single from the Here and Now album. It’s clear to see why Nickelback fans love seeing this band live; they know exactly how to work the crowd, keeping them entertained by making them sing, dance and drink.

They performed probably one of their best known songs ‘Rockstar’ and were joined on stage by Chris Daughtry, definitely a crowd pleasing song.

The energy was running on a high; after taking a number of shots, a few more people joined the stage armed with beer and t-shirt cannons. Plastic cups filled with beer and t-shirts all ended up in the crowd, these guys were definitely professionals, beer would stay in the cups until they reached people in the crowd.

After the song ‘When We Stand Together’ we witnessed one of the best drum solos; from Robin Diaz, I’ve seen so far, unbelievable.

The last song before the encore was probably the song that made them famous, ‘How You Remind Me’, full of those memorable hooks. Great song and great to see performed live. The encore had 2 more songs to try and keep the party that had started in Wembley Arena going; ‘Gotta Be Somebody’ and ‘Burn It To The Ground’.

Purely on entertainment levels Nickelback are amazing to see live, great atmosphere and a great night.

4 stars out of 5 ✭✭✭✭

Review by Christina Benneworth