Let’s be honest about this, not even The Lottery Winners believed they’d ever play in this arena to this many people. When the band were playing the pubs of Lee in Greater Manchester the idea that singer Thom Rylance would be fulfilling his Freddie Mercury fantasies would have no doubt been just that – a fantasy.
But, we are where we are and the four-piece are in Birmingham’s biggest arena tonight with a number one album in their pockets and another set of people to win over. As they proved when I saw them play with Frank Turner 18 months ago or so they are very adept at doing just that.
They have a very particular style of indie too. “Worry” and the clever “Letter To Myself” – and the discussion of “Kelly” is too raw not to be real – make good on their idea to be a self-help tape for those “struggling with life”. That said, they are able to write anthemic songs that drag a massive audience along, such as “You’re Not Alone” (dedicated to the neuro-divergent community).
Indeed, by the time they finish their 45 minutes with “Burning House,” they have made good on that promise to warm people up, but also have proved they belong on stages like this. Rylance might need to stop saying “pretend it’s a hit” soon but you suspect he won’t, even if they do hit the jackpot.
The best thing about Nickelback is that they basically write the review for you. When 15,000 people are screaming the hook “Are we having fun yet?” You do not need to work for Rolling Stone to spot the metaphor.
And that sort of communal experience, is a Nickelback show in a nutshell. They’re the peoples band.
Rewind to 2006. MV had a ticket to watch Bon Jovi in Coventry. Nickelback had been named as support. Back then, it was easy to criticise the Canadians. So we did. A friend of mine (sadly no longer with us) said to me: “Go and watch them, by the time they finish, you’ll be a fan.”
As she was so often, she was right. That night they’d opened with “Animals,” here they play it early on in the set. They may have started with “San Quentin”, the first song on their most recent album, but Chad Kroeger, hits the nail on the head when he says: “We just want to get you singing along.”
The way critics dismiss the band, you think having songs people liked, was a crime. “Savin’ Me” is anthemic – hell, they’re all anthemic, and they use their platform for good too as “When We All Stand Together” shines a light on, given that its accompanying video highlights the work done by the charity run by guitarist Ryan Peake’s wife.
They have, Kroeger explains, a desire to change the set every night, so they dust off “Where Do I Hide?” here, and after a mellow “This Afternoon” The Lottery Winners join them for “Don’t Look Back In Anger” (their presence on the bill is explained by a sea shanty version of “Rockstar” Matt Nickelback saw in lockdown), they do that thing that all arena rock bands do and build it to the big crescendo. “Photograph” is superb too, and so is the aforementioned “Rockstar” – complete with audience member singing along on stage) “Those Days” has a very clever backdrop of 80s music to go along with it, before that one about not being able to cut it as a blind man or poor man stealing would be capable of ending any set.
There’s an encore, because of course there is, and “Gotta Be Somebody” is gentle, before “Burn It To The Ground” is anything but. Their heaviest song brings the curtain down not only on this but also on their UK tour.
And there was still an article in the Evening Standard newspaper today with this as its opening paragraph: “Pineapple on pizza. Wearing socks to bed. The word “moist”. Listening to Nickelback. This is just a small selection of relatively harmless things that people make a great performative show of hating, just because everybody else does the same thing.”
Who are these “everybody” that still hate Nickelback? There wasn’t a seat to be had in the Utilita Arena this evening. There never is when the band plays. And when they play they just trot out rock n roll banger after rock n roll banger the people really, really like.
They’re more than the band that got huge despite everyone claiming to hate them. They’re the band that proves that the public doesn’t care what they’re supposed to like they’ll just enjoy what they enjoy, thanks.
More than that Nickelback are the heir apparent to Bon Jovi’s arena rock crown.
