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Rating: Many will say that Nickelback is the ultimate proof that nickel causes allergies, but I instead define them as the last great rock ‘n’ roll band on Earth, and for this reason, I didn’t want to miss the Milan date of the “Feed the Machine Tour.” I’m not the type to travel beyond my own hinterland to see concerts; if they come to Milan, great, otherwise who cares. It’s a flaw of mine, but I’m fortunate to live just a few kilometers from the metropolis that myriad bands choose as their only Italian date, probably due to the city’s significant economic, social, and cultural importance. And I was lucky this time too, because after the previous tour was canceled due to Chad Kroeger's vocal cord surgery, I thought they would choose the city originally planned for that tour, namely Turin.
For a rock concert, it’s always best to choose the parterre, but when it’s a band playing in a rather large venue and you have to go straight after work, it’s better to take the stands, with your assigned seat that no one can steal; no queues to be at the front, you enter comfortably and sit in your seat; then I noticed that if I had taken the parterre, I wouldn’t have been that far back, but probably seeing the concert properly is better.
What I notice upon arrival is a crowd with a rather un-rock exterior appearance; relatively few with a generally shabby look, long hair, and t-shirts of particularly niche metal bands - demonstrating how the band is hated by genre purists - at most a few people with shirts of the usual more well-known bands, stuff like AC/DC and Guns’n’Roses; however, there are many young people in adolescence and post-adolescence, so many cute girls in heat, many bare thighs, let's say a second complimentary show. But you’d expect it; it’s a commercial rock band whose success is propelled by numerous karaoke ballads (about 5 on each album released since 2005).
The stage is set up with a sort of central machinery on which the drums stand and from which luminous tubes extend, all inspired by the artwork of the latest album. Over the stage is a semi-circular big screen and two rectangular side screens, on which to project accompanying graphics and shots of the band and audience.
The evening opens with Seether, a South African band that has been active for almost twenty years but with undoubtedly less commercial potential than Nickelback. The South Africans deliver a taste of their post-grunge, playing their brief set without overdoing it and without putting on too much of a show; I only knew them from the ballad with Amy Lee and never delved into their music, who knows if one day I'll feel like doing so.
The anticipation for Nickelback’s entrance builds with a short video message followed by a frame of the latest album with a countdown; we all thought they were the minutes left until the start of their performance, but instead, they project the tour trailer with a final “coming soon,” essentially a benevolent but well-executed tease.
Then their entrance on stage. The sound is powerful but not grating, everything is well-balanced, strong enough to penetrate the skin but composed, allowing for the recognition of sounds and not drowning out Chad Kroeger’s powerful voice; however, when there isn’t a keyboardist involved, the problem significantly diminishes. Thus, the ballads sound thrilling and goosebump-inducing and the heavier tracks sound like boulders, almost "metallic" but never grating.
The audience is present and alive, not just during the more singable songs, it’s not that indifferent audience waiting only for the hits to get lively. Moreover, Chad adds his own touches, entertaining the audience who often responds with a “bevoooo, bevoooo...” while the vocalist indulges in alcohol. The maximum involvement comes when Chad calls two fans to sing “Rockstar” (now a classic ritual). I’m surprised by the request (fulfilled) to perform "What Are You Waiting For?"; wasn’t “No Fixed Address” a shunned album? I did my part sometimes a bit eccentrically, acting like an adolescent even though I’m almost thirty: twirling my lightsticks during the ballads while in heavier tracks like “Something in Your Mouth,” “Million Miles an Hour,” and “Burn It to the Ground” I go metalhead (even though I’m wearing a simple striped polo) headbanging; on the last one, though, we all got up to jump around, even the most inactive observer.
Under the visual aspect, the show is provided by animations on the semi-circular big screen; colored pipes and ducts accompany "Feed the Machine," Polaroid-style photo collages featuring band members for “Photograph” (a photo with Geddy Lee even pops up but who knows how many knew and noticed him), superimposed words on “Far Away,” luminous trails guide the sweetness of “Lullaby,” pages, radios, and record players in flames for “Song on Fire,” psychedelic and fast lights are perfect for the thrilling power of “Million Miles an Hour,” rotating images and words for “When We Stand Together,” a vintage car and its pistons for “Animals,” while only a live and burning fire occasionally scorching the musicians’ silhouettes can best accompany the explosive and concluding “Burn It to the Ground.”
Let’s get to the setlist, where we need to open a slightly longer discussion. It indeed features a bit too much dominance of ballads and anyway radio-friendly tracks, all chillingly beautiful, we all lost our voices, but their predominance almost made you forget you were in front of a grand hard rock band. The beauty of Nickelback, we know, is precisely their unrestrained alternation of hard and soft tracks within the same album, being the only band that is as much for pogo (even if there was no trace of pogo in the parterre) as for karaoke, in strictly alternating phases, and for this reason, I would have created a slightly more balanced setlist; I probably wouldn’t have removed any of the proposed ballads, but I would have added a handful of more intense tracks, maybe “This Means War,” “Side of a Bullet,” “Because of You”; and if I had a preference, I would have preferred a dominance of the harder tracks, as with a band that knows how to be explosive there was the potential for a truly explosive concert; but this radio-friendly dominance gives the impression of a concert meant to please the young girls (and indeed how many there were...). Then one would forget it was the “Feed the Machine” tour and instead only two tracks from it are proposed (plus the last track played in the background on loop to accompany the crowd dispersal at the end of the concert); I would have added another handful of tracks, “Must Be Nice” would have had an excellent live performance, everyone would have gone wild, we might even have danced, “The Betrayal (Act III)” would have been another nice boulder (or perhaps it would have been too metal for the target audience?), while ballads like “After the Rain” and “Home” would have warmed the evening (not that it was needed as it was already hot, hahaha) as much as the other tracks performed. Then there's the issue of the lack of propensity for experimentation in the setlists, which concerns a bit all big-name bands and about which I think I’ll write an editorial soon; even leafing through the old setlists I notice that the proposed tracks are almost always the same, usually singles when instead you could dare a bit more with the countless gems present in each album; lesser-known tracks that could have rocked with their power could have been, for example, “Throw Yourself Away,” “Next Go Round,” “Bottoms Up,” “Midnight Queen,” “Kiss It Goodbye,” or even something from the first two lesser-known albums. The setlist was about 1h and 40m and something more could still have been added.
Overall, though, we can’t say we didn’t have fun; maybe Nickelback aren’t technical monsters and probably not even artistically and atmospherically, they may be a working-class band, thousands of bands will eat them for breakfast and if you’re being objective, you admit it even if you’re a fan, but they proved to be valid performers, we experienced emotions, we had chills, many of us will probably go see them again in the future.
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