In spite of our late entrance, it was disturbingly easy to get extremely good positions to watch the show from. The average FoxFM listener doesn't resist much when you shove past them for the front [grins].
Overall Nickelback were much heavier live than their albums let on, and I for one thought that was a good thing. The problem with touring on the back of one hit single is that the majority of the crowd come with high expectations for that song and have no idea what the rest of the music is all about.
For the first time ever in my concert going experience, the front rows of the crowd, were not all die hard fans. Roughly half of them knew the words to each and every song, the rest just looked blank. One girl in front of me was actually trying to have a conversation on her mobile during the set, exclaiming at the top of her voice continually that she couldn't hear... ooh needless to say I was less than impressed with her attitude.
The crowd appeared to be a half and half mix of girls in off the shoulder tops and hipster pants, dubbed the FoxFM crowd by me, and the people who actually liked the band for their whole album, and in a few cases, even knew the 2 previous ones. Although given the speed with which they toured to Australia, I suppose the numbers weren't that bad.
Despite Chad doing the wanky, I love your city crap, he actually held forth with amusing dialogue for most of the night, although I think the drug references were a trifle unexpected by much of the crowd... it only made it all the more amusing.
The highlight of the night for me was the performance of my favorite track, the very angry, Never Again, although their rendition of RATM's The Ghost of Tom Joad was pretty damn good too.
Nickelback held off performing the single How You Remind Me until their very last song. Chad made his attitude clear, with the scathing "Now here's the song that all of you up there on the balcony actually came for". He then thanked us profusely for sending How You Remind Me into gold sales.
Overall I loved the show and will be first in line for the next concert!!!
Oh and I love the Mercury Lounge for photo opportunities...
