Concert review - Nickelback - Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney - 15th February 2019

I go to a lot of concerts. It averages one a month, however this month it's more like one a week. These are all of this year's concerts:

• Lily Allen (that was last week on the 5th of February)
• Nickelback tonight
• Red Hot Chili Peppers next Tuesday the 19th of February
• Beth Hart next Friday the 22nd of February
• Hanson the 5th of March
• Kylie Minogue the 6th of March
• Bryan Adams the 24th of March

I then have a bit of a gap without concerts before the following:

• Maren Morris the 22nd of August
• Julia Michaels the 5th of September

Then there is nothing until next year:

• Elton John on the 7th of Janaury

Tonight was of course Nickelback and as a longstanding fan there was a lot of anticipation. That anticipation was brought about for two reasons.

I saw them back in 2006 at Auckland's Western Springs Stadium when they opened for the Rolling Stones. I thought they were very average live. I was not impressed at all.They might have been having a bad night or they've improved considerably over the last few years, which is entirely possible. I know that even a few months can make a huge difference to my performing so imagine what a few years can do to them.

As I had acting practice early in the evening I missed out on the opening act but as I've previously written about I'm not a fan of opening acts, which the exception being Japanese Wallpaper who opened for Lily Allen last week so I don't think I really missed anything.

Nickelback came onto the stage just before 9pm and opened with the title track from their new album, Feed the Machine.

Long time fans such as myself were extremely happy when the third song was Photograph which they were keen for the audience to sing, and sing we did. That enthusiasm carried through for the next song, Far Away, a ballad from the same album, All The Right Reasons.

Something In Your Moutth was a track that Chad Kroeger was very enthusiastic about , quite possibly because of the lyrics.

The set list had changed between concerts so I was a caught off guard when they launched into Someday, which is one of my favourite songs and a song that I practiced singing last night. It was the highlight of the show for me and is the song that got me into Nickelback in the first place. It also has a lot of meaning for me. In the past it's been a song that has been hard to listen to but tonight I just loved every second of it and sung along.

When we stand together and Gotta be somebody were two highlights for me as well.  The songs had an excellent beat and lyrics as well.

As with most shows, Chad brought a couple of fans on stage to sing Rockstar from All The Right Reasons. One of the fans was so uncomfortable and like a fish out of water whereas the other was right at home. It was a pretty funny moment but in all honesty I could've done without the uncomfortable fan being on stage.

There were other moments when Chad and his bandmates interacted with the audience. He made a lot of jokes about his alcoholism and how everyone loves the drummer, not knowing of course that me, sitting in the stand has a major crush on him (there's just something about a lead singer) and when he talked about how he loves Sydney's weather.

The final song before the encore was How you remind me and there was only a short gap before the two song encore. The concert closed on Burn It To The Ground.

It may be that there's a few songs that I really love and that I feel truly connected to or it's that Chad Kroeger is incredibly hot but the show was one of the best I've been to lately.

I have to give it a 4/5.

Here are some photos from the show including the moment when two fans were brought on stage.