FINALLY... the Nickelback concert

"I'm so addicted to..." well, Nickelback actually but Saving Abel was a great start to the show. I don't know what it is about Nickelback that's so completely captured my attention... it may very well be that so many of their songs hold a meaning for me. And I think Chad Kroeger looks very similar to my brother Nick. I took a million pictures so bare with me. I promise, this is only a fraction of what I took, I tried to just stick with the best ones.
We were front and center. And when I say front and center, I mean FRONT and CENTER. We were against the security rail with nothing but the security guards between us and the stage.
SAVING ABEL

I made a point to take a picture of all the Saving Abel band members because then there was this guy... who in my opinion did NOT fit in at all. He was kind of... nerdy? Ha ha. He wasn't even given a microphone, and I find him highly hilarious. He kept head banging and the whole routine just didn't fit the over all vibe he was giving off. Maybe it's the baby face? I don't know.
PAPA ROACH
Honestly I had never heard of Papa Roach until I heard they were coming with Nickelback. I am now a fan. And even more so after seeing them on stage. The lead singer, Jacoby Shaddix, came out and informed us all the he was sick with the flu and likely to either puke or s**t his pants on stage... nice (well, considering the type of concert it was, the language was par for the night. Actually better as he didn't insert f**** into it anywhere...). Jacoby was FUN. He was engaging, he would look right at us while he sang, which was actually kind of creepy. He had dark eyeliner and these tear drops... and then these dazzling blue eyes coming out of all that black. Yikes! But he seemed to really care that he was connecting with me, the fan there on the front row. And I also thought it was really cool that he noticed a teen boy who was having a birthday, and made sure that a drum stick was tossed to him. And his energy in performing even though he was obviously not feeling well. Jacoby kept swishing his mouth with water and spitting... being as we were so close I caught the spray of one of those spits. I'm going to get swine flu from Papa Roach.
I took this picture because I was amazed at how soft and silky and shiny this guys hair was. I just wanted to reach and touch it; I was certain it was going to be the softest hair ever!
HINDER
I've never actually seen Hinder. I've heard their music, and knew them by sound very easily. The lead singer, Austin Winkler, looks nothing like I imagined him to. I took me pretty much all night to adjust to that voice coming out of a very different person than what I had always pictured in my head.
I found it interesting how different the band's personalities were portrayed through their drum sets. Yes, Hinder had bras hanging from theirs. And the drummer had a fan blowing his hair up the entire time; way too funny!
See the guitarist to the far left? That's more what I pictured Austin would look like. Boy was I wrong!After the set, Austin looked straight at me and tossed me his set list. It even has his name on it. Though I'm not sure what to do with it now?
Sherry, John and me. John's dad was around somewhere and my friend Linda joined us (with much pushing through the crowd) by Nickelback. NICKELBACK
Holy crap I screamed like a 14 year old love sick girl! The tension and spirits were high as we knew they were coming onto the stage. I couldn't believe I was there, and SO CLOSE to them! Life is so amazing! For a few seconds last night, my path crossed Chad Kroeger's. He looked me in the eyes. He took notice of me. I will never see him again, but he did notice me, and I registered in his mind as he looked at me. I know I'm one in millions whom he does that with at shows, but I don't care. I guess I'm STILL sounding like a 14 year old love sick girl. But I don't care. I took SO many pictures. I tried to keep it to a minimum here on the blog.
Chad Kroeger, and all of Nickelback really, was so entertaining. They'd play a few songs and then just ramble. It was the funniest thing to be there and listen to them get side tracked and then realize maybe they should play something. When they first came out the sun hadn't quite made it below the mountains yet. Chad says "it's been a long time since we've been on stage when the sun was still up. I just want to stand here for 10 minutes and let it set. The vampire in me doesn't like this at all." I love him! I was also extremely impressed with the fact that Chad knew the stage crew members' names. He would call for one, by name, introduce them, "this is Jerry he does... for us" and then continue on with some random request for them using please and thank you. It was good to see that he was down to earth and respectful.
The picture with Austin from Hinder in the background worked out so well, but we didn't have near the room to back up and take a shot with by the time Nickelback was on. This was as good as we were going to get. I'll take it. Austin Winkler (Hinder) came out and sang some AC/DC with them.
A security guard gave me a jolley rancher... nice red tongue.
Chad Kroeger pouring tequila into mouths... and Nickelback performed Garth Brooks "Friends in low places" and Chad did an acapella Joe Nichols "Tequilla makes her clothes fall off". I'm seriously amused that they know country!
I'm so proud of this picture! I love that I captured this!
This is the part where they started throwing glasses of beer out to the audience... yeah, glasses. Which only meant that those of us up front got sprayed with it as it was flung. Nice. Papa Roach's spit, Nickelback's beer. Shower time.
They raised him up on a drum solo and started spinning him around.
This picture wasn't even zoomed in. WE WERE SO CLOSE! See the camera guy? We ended up on the big screen on the stage many times as they filmed the crowd.