True Nickelback fans give what the cameras want

Thursday, August 28, 2003

By BILL WHITE
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Nickelback played a nearly flawless 70-minute set for 800 fans Tuesday night in EMP's Sky Church. It was the last of the first week of concerts being taped for airing on VH-1 next month.

MUSIC REVIEW

NICKELBACK

WHERE: EMP's Sky Church

WHEN: Tuesday night.

With two handheld cameras on the stage, a tracking camera to the rear of the crowd, a stationary camera up on a lighting platform, and a wildly maneuverable camera spinning above the action, the broadcast should be every bit as exciting as the show itself.

Before the band came onstage, the audience was coaxed into game-show-type hysteria for the filming of several reaction shots to be cut arbitrarily into the action.

When the band kicked into "Woke Up this Morning," the first of 14 songs played, the crowd was stoked.

One of the advantages of living in (or visiting) Seattle is the opportunity to participate in the kind of event for which, in ordinary circumstances, one has to know somebody in order to get a ticket. The Sky Church was filled, not with industry types and handpicked young people, but with real, honest to goodness Nickelback fans. There was no shifting of audience members to manipulate the physical appearance of the crowd. The first people to arrive got the ringside seats, and were not displaced by handpicked individuals who might better fit the "Nickelback fan" profile.

"You sound like they've been pumping you full of beer for an hour," singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger told the crowd after a dragster sprint through "Flat on the Floor." It was the first of a handful of songs played from Nickelback's upcoming release, "The Long Road," from which "Someday," the initial single, is currently receiving airplay.

The show continued with several songs from the band's breakthrough album, "Silver Side Up," and two selections from "The State," including "Leader of Men."

Nickelback has managed to forge an identifiable sound out of Soundgarden's legacy without pushing their musical parameters beyond the rudiments of three-chord rock 'n' roll. With drum parts that offer hard accents in place of straight time-keeping, and bass lines bridging the guitar riffs, they have found a simple approach that is tight, dynamic and forceful. There is not a lot of lead guitar playing, but when Kroeger busts it out, he does some serious damage.

Following an intimate version of "Feeling You Out," the band climaxed with a heady "Too Bad."

The encore, beginning with an unplugged "Hero," built to "How You Remind Me," which had the crowd screaming along with the chorus. "I am definitely loving this intimate setting," Kroeger said. "You guys are louder than 10,000 people."

The second leg of the VH-1 tapings gets under way on Sept. 9 with concerts from Heart, Fuel, Live, Fountains of Wayne, and Sugar Ray. The series premieres on VH-1 Sept. 16.

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