Nickelback and Seether, Genting Arena, Birmingham - review and pictures
Canadian Rockstars Nickelback played a superb show before thousands of fans in Birmingham last night.
Up first however were South African stars Seether, who set the tone for the night with a gritty set boasting a clean, hefty sound.
Lead singer Shaun Morgan gave an excellent performance, with powerful, sharp, clear vocals, showing his voice to still be very much the outstanding quality it was when the band first began back in 1999.
Much to fans' delight, the group played hits aplenty - from Fine Again, to Fake It and Remedy.
And as Shaun impressed on guitar, bassist Dale Stewart jumped around the stage throwing picks into the adoring crowd below.
They may been there as the support, but Seether certainly drew in huge crowds and fans were clearly delighted to see them. Best of all, they seemed as happy to be there as the audience.
Main attraction Nickelback came next, kicking off their lively set with 2017 album title track Feed The Machine.
The set itself was impressive too, with drummer Daniel Adair sat on a platform designed to look like a huge battery or computer, with lit-up flashing red wires feeding into it.
Despite some initial sound issues, the band soon got into the swing of things, with frontman Chad Kroeger giving not only superb vocals, but also showing off his brilliant showmanship skills and daft sense of humour.
"We finally made it back to town," beamed the 43-year-old frontman, before requesting one of many Jägerbombs of the evening from the band's tour manager.
"It feels like a good rock and roll night.
"This is our first big sing-a-long moment of the evening."
The band then launched into 2005 hit Photograph - and from that moment onwards, 'sing-a-long moments' filled the majority of their set, with hits such as Someday, Figured You Out, and Hero coming thick and fast.
It was a greatly varied show too, with heavy, fast-paced songs well mixed in with ballads and softer numbers - all of which went down very well indeed.
Rockstar also featured, with two fans coming up to the stage to sing the tongue-in-cheek number alongside the band.
My personal favourite Animals was also among the set, with Chad warning fans prior to the performance that when he wrote the song he 'forgot the importance of oxygen', and may need help with the track. And he did, which was gladly given from guitarist Ryan Peake and the crowd, but it sounded great nonetheless.
The rockers played How You Remind me - joined by the constant echo of thousands of fans in the arena who clearly knew every word - before heading off the stage, before returning for an encore.
"We're gonna go and pretend we're leaving now and if you make enough noise we're gonna play the encore," laughed Chad.
"But truthfully, we're gonna play the encore any way."
And, true to their word, the group then returned for a booming performance of Burn It To The Ground.
Chad's humour and self-deprecating attitude made the evening; it's always good to see high-performing stars who don't take themselves too seriously. And he and Nickelback were certainly more than happy to laugh at themselves and tease the audience at every opportunity.
Filled with laughs and sing-a-longs aplenty, it was a great evening for All The Right Reasons.
