Seattle Times Concert Review

Nickelback gives fans a home town feel

By Jeff Gilbert

Special to The Seattle Times

For singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger it wasn't so much the kick-off show on the last leg of Nickelback's "All The Right Reasons" tour as it was a gig in his own backyard.

Hailing from "just up the street" in Vancouver, B.C., Chad and the boys played as though it was in front of a hometown crowd. And for the deafening fans that filled the Tacoma Dome to near capacity Tuesday, it was.

Announcing the band's arrival with fireworks befitting Fourth of July-var's, Nickelback roared out of the gate with the full-throttle "Animals," barely stopping to refuel with the -- dare it be said -- grunge-sounding "Woke Up This Morning," from the 2003 multiplatinum CD, "Silver Side Up."

The rest of the 16-song set hit the sweet spot between muscular anthems ("Flat On The Floor," "Figured You Out") and lighter-waving power ballads ("How You Remind Me," "Someday"), a genre Nickelback all but redefined.

Having sold more than 25 million albums since shotgunning up the charts with the 2003 hit "How You Remind Me," and staying there with 2005's six-times platinum "All The Right Reasons," Nickelback delivered a show that sounded like a greatest-hits package -- because all their songs are hits.

Dressed in his mainstay rock attire of black T-shirt, jeans and boots -- which emphasized the everyman aspect of his songs -- Kroeger easily connected with the crowd. A self-proclaimed redneck, he told off-color jokes and instructed the road crew to get beer (Corona, though one would have presumed Moosehead, the Canadian brand) for everyone in the audience.

Drummer Daniel Adair's mid-set drum solo sounded like the shelling range at Fort Lewis, while guitarist Ryan Peake's turn in the spotlight with a cover of "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)" was worthy of Metallica.

Thankfully, Mike Kroeger's robust bass didn't fall prey to the Tacoma Dome's notorious booming echo, as it did for the opening bands.

Encoring with the show-stopping "Rockstar," Nickelback's cheeky ode to fame-craving, the band proved with its big-chorus rock that it has truly earned, like the song says, a "bathroom they can play baseball in."

Nu-metal emo boys Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, while enthusiastically received, were victims of opening-band syndrome: feedbacking mics, bass in the key of mud and three Duracells worth of lighting.