Nickelback, Pop Evil Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion April Fools Day, 2015
Seeing a rock band live is a great barometer of where they are in their career. Did the venue size from their last tour go up or down? How many songs from the new album are they playing? How much do they talk between songs? Are they still selling GA tickets up front or have they switched over to seats?
The answers to these questions let you know where a rock band is on the arc of their career. It's how you separate the bands that are in their prime, trying to hold on to their chunk of the spotlight or are making the crossover to legacy act.
Which leads us in to a discussion of Nickelback, a band that seemingly everyone has an opinion on, mostly negative. It's been almost three years since they were last in the Bayou City, making a lot of noise over at the Toyota Center. How much of a difference do three years make?
Rejoice! At worst (best?), Nickelback are heading into a decline. At best (worst?), they're becoming a classic-rock act. This is good news for fans and haters alike.
A Nickelback show is just rotten with chatter. Chad Kroeger, a man who at least has a sense of humor about himself, flaps his gums between every song without fail. Sometimes he panders to the audience. Sometimes he takes a shot. Sometimes he tries to pump up the crowd.
It stretches what could be a tight hour-and-a-half show in to a two-hour slog. Seriously, we know your tricks, you don't really need to change guitars every song. Cut out some of the chatter and play "Leader of Men." There was, hard as it may be to believe, life before "How You Remind Me."
This endless chatter is symbolic of something bigger. This show felt very different from their last visit to town. Things were noticeably scaled back. The venue: smaller. The stage production: smaller. General admission: only on the lawn.
In fairness, playing the Pavilion is nothing to be ashamed of. To get a pretty packed crowd in on a Wednesday night is nothing to sneeze at. To have that crowd in the palm of your hands...OK, that's not particularly complicated.
Nickelback know what works when it comes to putting on a show. They know what their audience wants. You keep things simple and play the hits, sneaking in the catchier numbers from your new album when possible. You sprinkle in snippets of cover songs to show you know how to have a good time and aren't completely full of yourself. You throw beer into the crowd in between doing Jagerbombs onstage.
You have a schtick and you stick to it.
And it works. But is it interesting? Is it engaging? Does it create catharsis?
Those are questions that do not matter at a Nickelback concert.
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