“Nickelback Fan or Liar?” – so asks one of the shirts Nickelback offers at their concert merch stand.

Seems a pretty honest, tongue in cheek, question considering the sheer volume of contempt thrown their way (mostly online) and the staggering levels of cheering, clapping, rocking out at their sold-out concerts. These two images so deeply contradict each other, so who’s lying 😀 ?

I’m kidding (mostly). Music is subjective, so I am sure there are many who just don’t like their music and that’s fine. But the mystery remains.

I’ve mentioned before the divisive-ness this band can evoke, yet their concerts sell out and they are one of Canada’s most successful groups.

So, is there like some secret Nickelback society of people who outwardly display the hate but then buy all the albums, stream the songs, and grab their tshirt hidden in the depths of their closets and show up in droves at the concerts?

Is there a secret handshake?

Because, seriously, I have seen the hate, and the eyes roll, and heard the “ugh, Nickelback.” But I have also seen the love at their shows.

Including their recent tour, Get Rollin (an apt name considering the many plumes of pot clouds in the crowd throughout the night :’P)

And I swear, I have never, in alll of the numerous (and there’s been a lot – just read this blog!) concerts I’ve been to at this arena, never heard the crowd at Roger’s Place be as loud and boisterous as they were at Nickelback’s show last week!

It was insane! Having just been to three Harry Styles concerts of 80,000 screaming ecstatic fans – I can tell you the 18,000 at Roger’s Place were comparable in noise levels.

For the record, I am a fan, not a liar :P. Perhaps not to the level of fan I am for U2 or Harry Styles, but I’ve always enjoyed the Nickelback songs that come on the radio and while that friend of mine who is a huge fan may have had to twist my rubber arm to go with her to their last concert, they fully won me over with their concert prowess and I promised myself and her I would always go see them live if possible.

These boys know how to put on a good show – nope – an unbelievably awesome, super fun, high energy show. There’s cool stage stuff, like the drum riser that looks like the head beams of the van on the album cover…

the pyro, the videos and graphics that match the 70s aesthetic of that van and cover or tell a story for the song.

And, you know, the highly catchy, extremely rockin,’ fun to sing along with songs, with lyrics that range from raunchy to save the world.

Nickelback are good. And Edmonton loves them. Like I said, I’ve been to a ton of concerts in Edmonton (and around the world) and Edmonton is an amazing audience. Amongst the best, in my experience. We are loud, we dance, we sing, we jump.

We appreciate the musicians who come see us (probably in part due to the sad neglect of many a tour, tooooo many a tour, that skips over this city – I’m looking at you U2, and just this year or two- Harry, Taylor, Beyoncé, Pink… ugh, there’s sooo many – don’t get me started!), so we celebrate the ones who do show up with all the fervour we have to spare.

But WOW! Did we ever appreciate the heck out of Nickelback last week! Maybe it’s partly because these are Alberta boys from just down the QEII and around the corner. But maybe it’s just that they are that good live.

I think I need to talk about the opening acts too – just in general. There were two, and both I found a strange choice for a Nickelback audience. The first, kinda pure country; the second, a blend of country and heavy metal.

While country is not generally my genre, I’m all for mixing things up and genre-bending. Why not some country at a rock show? Why not heavy metal and country blended together?

I did find the volume level of the second act way to loud for my ears. Loud enough that it distorted the sound (and triggered my watch’s loud decibels thing frequently).

I left towards the end of their set to beat the intermission crowd line ups and on my way back into the concerty-area (that’s the correct technical term, I’m sure of it…), the difference in volume was ear-shatteringly apparent and I chose to watch the rest of their set from the hallway to save my ears.

I think its time for me to start bringing earplugs to concerts… sigh… I’m getting old.

Anyways, if you are not a fan, or a liar, but maybe sit on the fence rather than all the way to the hate side – I highly recommend checking Nickelback out in concert. If nothing else, you get a good show (and a lot of second-hand pot).