Nickelback Concert with Danko Jones (Ottawa)

I arrived at the newly crowned Scotiabank Place (renamed after the building's new sponsor) to realize I missed Danko Jones. This band hailing from Toronto are receiving buzz around independent North American circles for their mix of funked-up rock reminiscent of the heydays of the '70s and the harder edge they took since the turn of the century. I would have to console myself with the York PA band Live as my opening act.

Throwing Copper, Live's best known CD was a favourite of mine when I raced my bike around the city, so I was looking forward to what they would present now over 10 years later. The atmosphere was electric in the Scotiabank Place, the approximate 14,000 fans were buzzing as Live took the stage. Live's Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk can hit the notes. He belted out "Lightening Strikes" and various hits from Throwing Copper ("I Alone" and "All Over You" and "Selling the Drama"). I was taken with the song (and first single) from their new album Songs from the Black Mountain that will be released in May. The song in question "The River," is a great love anthem. Others included in the set were "Mystery," "Sophia" and "Show."

The testosterone driven crowd was hyped for some good old rock and roll when Nickelback hit the stage. Pyro-blasts shot out as Chad and the band opened with "Animals." Their latest radio hit was accompanied by the video on screen behind them showing off cars and girls. We were all moving to the beat and in turn pumping our arms and our fists into the air. The Alberta boys didn't let us down as "Animals" is one of the tunes from their latest album All the Right Reasons. "Photograph" was their first single and it achieved huge success. They had a montage of photographs up on screen during the song documenting the boy's history from childhood to the formation of the band.

Other songs they performed included: "Breathe" from the 2000 album The State, and "Someday" from The Long Road (which had the crowd in a frenzy). Their new drummer Daniel Adair who replaced Ryan Vikedal did an unbelievable job on "Follow You Home" as his kit rolled out towards the audience. They paid tribute to a fallen colleague Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott who was shot to death in a Columbus, Ohio night club in 2004 with a video montage.

Chad seemed to run out of stream as the show progressed. As this is the last show on the Canadian leg of the tour it could have been from road fatigue. They played two encores: "Rockstar" and "Figured You Out." It was a disappointment they left "Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting" out of the set as it would have been apropos being a Saturday Night concert. And if Kid Rock joined them on stage the crowd would've went insane.

As it was we were there for approximately 90 minutes. It seemed short as most bands playing Ottawa in the recent past entertained audiences over the two hour mark. But I digress. Rounding out the set list (played before the encore) was: "Savin' Me" and "Side of a Bullet" from All the Right Reasons.

Related Links
Nickelback - Official Site
Nickelback - MySpace
Nickelback - Pictures