TK reviews Nickelback's Dark Horse Tour

Hello everyone,

The morning after a concert is always fun. I'm still tired but that's to be expected after standing on my feet for 7 hours at work then an additional four at the show. But you people don't care about that, you people care about how rocking the show was.

First and foremost the weather was a bit uncooperative last night out at First Midwest Bank but luckily as Hinder/Nickelback took the stage the rain quieted down. But before that we had new rock group- Saving Abel take the stage. They got the crowd riled up pretty well and for being only 6:30 there was a decent size crowd already on hand. They played about five songs from their debut disc but two I only recognized including the closing song- Addicted To, which had the entire place up and singing.

Up next is a band who I think just rocks live, Papa Roach. The guys in PR tore through a set and played a lot of fan favorites including- Getting Away with Murder, Scars and of course Last Resort which closed out their set. These guys know how to rock and are very good at what they do.

Third was Hinder. Am a big fan of these guys but as for seeing them live, I'm not really sold. The guys can rock but the lead singing leaves something to be desired. He sounded great when the band blasted out Lips of an Angel which had the 19,000 plus size crowd singing along but on other tracks you couldn't really understand him too well and that was kind of a turn off. But other then that they mixed songs from their current album including Use Me with songs from their debut album including How Long and the closing rocker- Get Stoned.

Last but not least was Nickelback. I love this band and have never seen them headline a show, just open for Bon Jovi a couple of years ago. But now that they have their own headlining tour, the boys in Nickelback are proving they are all that and more. They blasted the opening song- Something in Your Mouth and went right into their countless of hits. They tore through Because of You, Figured You Out and Burn it to the Ground. They mixed rock with their slower stuff including terrific performances of Savin Me, Far Away, Photograph and an unreal performance of Rockstar.

The band even had Papa Roach and Hinder's lead singers come out for a jam session of AC/DC Highway to Hell which was freaking sweet! Nickelback defintely knows how to get an audience involved as frontman Chad Kroeger may have spent a little too much time talking last night instead of playing but the show still rocked. They also played If Today Was Your Last Day, Gotta Be Somebody and came out for two encores including Someday and of course Animals which was just surreal.

All in all one of the best shows I've seen this year and maybe for all time. Nickelback just has songs that mean something to me and it's so cool to hear them sung live. They sound terrific live and know how to play to a crowd. They brought pyro and fire and everything in between with them and know how to put on a good show.

TK's rating- 4/5 stars for the Dark Horse 2009 Tour

TK