Toronto was treated to a very special evening with Nickelback as they played to a sold-out crowd at History, a significantly smaller venue than their usual arenas, to celebrate the release of their tenth studio album Get Rollin’. Tickets for this show sold out almost instantly as they went on sale. Everyone wanted a chance to catch one of Canada’s most successful rock bands in such an intimate venue. Many fans also seemed to have noted that it was lead singer, Chad Kroeger’s birthday, and held up signs sending him well wishes as the band appeared on stage at 9:15 sharp.
Kicking off their set, the band gave their new single ‘San Quentin’ it’s live debut before wasting no time to dive into their hits ‘Savin’ Me’ and ‘Photograph’. Despite this show being 2 days before Get Rollin’ was released and deeming it an album release show, Nickelback was still pretty hush about the unreleased songs. The only other new song played was ‘Those Days’ which had also been previously released during the album roll out, while the rest of the night was filled with their hits. It was a little disappointing that they didn’t debut more songs at the show, but nonetheless it was a fantastic time for everyone in attendance.
Everyone was dancing and singing along throughout the entire night. Most notably, there was a fan near the front that held up his phone with a note asking the band to do ‘Rockstar Karaoke’. Koreger took note, and invited the gentleman up on stage to introduce himself and sing ‘Rockstar’ with them. When the song was over, he exited the stage near where I was standing and a lot of fans stopped him as he was going back into the crowd to pat him on the back and tell him that they thought he did a fantastic job on stage with the band. I’ve never seen that happen at a show before, and I think that speaks volumes on Nickelback and their fanbase. The band has been riddled by memes and random hate on the internet for as long as I can remember, but they have always seem to have taken it with a stride. Kroeger will even sometimes introduce ‘Photograph’ by mentioning it’s the song that’s about the graph. Everything they do seems to be done to make sure everyone in the room is having a good time, and that seems to also reflect on the fans that they attract as well.
As the night came to a close, the band didn’t do an encore, but they did finish strong as they ended their set with ‘How You Remind Me’ and ‘Burn It to the Ground’.
I went into this show as a casual Nickelback fan, and left as one who had to immediately go home and listen to their entire discography. Their set list showcased how diverse Nickelback’s discography was. They’ve literally dipped their toe into practically every genre and that was something I wasn’t aware of prior to seeing them live. I can’t remember the last time I was this thoroughly surprised to see a band perform for the first time, and I’ll definitely be grabbing tickets the next time they are in town.
Get Rollin’ is available everywhere now with limited edition record variants available through the band’s merch store.
Connect with Nickelback : Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Be sure to check out Live Nation Ontario to see all of the other great acts that they will be bringing to Toronto this year.
