NICKELBACK – HERE AND NOW IN MUNICH


My story started in 2006 when Nickelback was supporting Bon Jovi during their world tour. That year I had the chance to see this band for the first time as a live act. All the concert-goers know that the role of a supporting band is pretty hard as most of the people are waiting for the headliners. Until that time they're usually relaxing, chatting or just killing time somehow. In case of Nickelback it didn't happen like this, the audience were really into them, they could move easily all the Bon Jovi fans and most of us came home with the feeling that we have to listen to all of the songs written by this band. During the years they became really famous all over in Europe so after the successful European leg of Dark Horse tour in 2010, they returned to the continent in 2012 with their current tour called Here And Now and again as the headliners of course.

We've chosen Munich as our destination, they played there on 26th September in the Olympic Stadium. We were a bit worried about the weather as it is pretty risky to go to an open-air concert at the end of September. Even the organizers thought so, as originally this show was announced in the Olympic hall but because of some unsolved safety reasons they changed the venue to the stadium. Knowing that we had huge luck with the weather, I'd say that it made the show even better.

Some of the fans showed up early in the morning to make sure that they'll get the best spot for the night. The gates opened at 6 PM, the entry went smoothly and absolutely well organized, Germans know how this has to be handled. Here we still have some lessons to learn...

The supporting band was Daughtry just like in 2010. For me they were a pretty good surprise as they're more energetic and better on the stage than 2 years before. The audience thanked this with a massive support and they sang together with them happily when they were asked so.

About 9:15 PM the intro of the main act appeared on the big screens and Chad Kroeger, Ryan Peake, Mike Kroeger and Daniel Adair started up with the first track of their new album called This Means War.

All the people were with them from the very first minute, and were jumping up and down. Just right after the first track they continued with Something In Your Mouth from Dark Horse album, which is not a quiet and relaxing song either. Then Chad said hello to the fans and while he was referring to the current Oktoberfest in town he also encouraged the people to drink, have party together and he started the next song called Bottoms Up. Of course some drinks appeared on stage from time to time during the concert, no question they're a real rockband.

The base of the setlist were the biggest hits of the band, including Photograph, Far Away and also Too Bad. All of these songs were very welcomed by the fans who were singing them from the first word to the last. After Animals there was a little conversation between Chad and Ryan as they tried to play Rammstein's biggest hit, Du hast mich in acoustic version. And then they tried the same in English, finally they agreed that they shouldn't test this in front of thousands of people.
After this the next songs were a bit softer as the new single called Tryin' Not To Love You was on and then they played Rockstar. During this track Chris Daughtry joined to the band and they were jamming together with a huge success.

After all Chad explained that he got engaged a few weeks ago to the Canadian singer Avril Lavigne and actually she had her birthday on that day. He went to backstage to ask Avril to come up to the stage with him. He was just repeating that she would kill him after the show and basically he's a dead man now but still he asked the audience to sing Happy Birthday to her. Although the the singing was really loud, this action didn't have a totally positive feedback from the side of the public. Some people even around me were whispering to each other that this shouldn't have happened.



After the short birthday party the T-shirt shooting and beer tossing started. The T-shirts flew to the back of the standing area while the plastic beer cups went to the ones who were standing closer to the stage. As a result, apparently the front rows were rather bathing in the beer than drinking it. Chad was really in a chatty mood that night so he told a story how he'd go out to the Oktoberfest having fun with people who doesn't speak English and who'd think that he's totally crazy and after how he'd be escorted back to the hotelroom.

The setlist still continued with softer songs like Someday, Lullaby, This Afternoon and When We Stand Together. Then Daniel was the main act as he started his drumsolo which was awesome. For the last beats the other members returned to the stage and they switched back to a harder style again with Figured You Out where Ryan also got the chance from Chad to sing a few lines. The main part of the program was finished with How You Remind Me.

Sure knew everybody that the show couldn't have been closed like this, so the band soon came back with the encore which included 2 songs: Gotta Be Somebody and Burn It To The Ground. After all they said goodbye to the German fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSjlWcF42U&feature=share

This show had everything that a real rock concert has to have. There were the loud sing-along parts during the hits, the band encouraged the audience more times to have party and to have a blast together – they didn't have to beg, the whole standing area started to move as one after the requests. I think this evening will be a long lasting memory for everybody. An amazing professional rockband was on stage with spectacular lighting and stage technics and with a perfect program for a rockshow.

The band's still touring in Europe for a few weeks, then they travel to Australia. We hope that we can see them again soon, maybe a little bit closer to Hungary, or even exactly here by us.

H.Zsuzsi