Target Center Here & Now Concert Review Featuring My Darkest Days, Seether, Bush, Nickelback

My Darkest Days, Seether, Bush, Nickelback hit up the Target Center Wednesday Night, here is my unprofessional review of the Here & Now Tour.

First off, let me begin by saying if you are a die-hard Nickelback fan, I don’t want your pissy email saying what a great band they are. I don’t hate them, but I don’t love them either. I like about 25% of their music; the non-cross over, in your face rock. So why did I go? My Darkest Days and Bush.

My Darkest Days opened up the show with their newest single, Sick and Twisted Affair. The guys brought a ton of energy to the stage, getting the crowd involved into the show. I felt bad when they came out from backstage, the seats were 80% empty, the floor only had a handful of rows with fans waiting for Nickelback (I’m sure.) Granted, they are the new guys in comparison to the others on the bill, but honestly, I enjoyed them the most! Their set was only 20 minutes and we rocked out to Move Your Body, Casual Sex, and they closed with Porn Star Dancing. They even had a special guest on stage, a blowup doll. You know the show is fun when they guys can have fun on the stage and not care! That’s my kind of show. If you really want a rock show, see My Darkest Days.

Seether opened up their set with one of my favorites, Gasoline. In my opinion, it went downhill from there. I don’t go to concerts to hear the slow, sappy, chick songs. I get that fans love the songs and they play them, much like I do for you on the radio. I would much rather have a sore neck from rocking out the entire night versus sitting there asking myself why the hell did I show up. Fine Again, Broken, Country Song, I could have done without. Seether really didn’t bring much to the stage as far as energy. Shaun Morgan has a great voice, but no stage presence. Not that I recall anyway, I did suck down a few beers by this point. But, they got me going again closing with Fake It. But wait, the lights are still down, the band left the stage….will they come back for an encore. Yes, Remedy was their final song and overall Seether did a decent job. I don’t expect them to dance around the stage like a pop star, but maybe move around a little bit. I get you only have three guys with one of them behind the drums, but don’t just stand behind the mic.  I think I would still see Seether again, I like their music enough to forgive the lack of stage presence.

The main reason for heading down to the cities was to see Bush. One of the many bands that I have always wanted to see. Do I like Bush, well..the band and their music, yes. Do I like Bush because Gavin Rossdale is hot, yes. I am not going to lie, he looked damn good last night.I kick myself for getting caught up in a conversation with friends outside of the arena and missed the first two songs, but walking in during Machine Head was awesome! Gavin is a great performer. He was even performing in the crowd on the opposite end of the stage. Comedown and Glycerine were the closing songs. Was I drinking a little too much during Bush, maybe. But I still know they rocked it. I had to get excited for Nickelback to hit the stage next, so I needed some liquid fun, don’t judge. Note to self: Buy tickets the next time Bush comes to town and actually watch the show!

By the time Nickelback had their stage set up, 99% of the seats were full, the floor was packed ready to go. There was me with another beer in my hand. I actually sent myself emails all night with the songs each band performed, and Nickelback, the headliner, obviously plays a lot longer than the other bands, so I was ready to take some notes. Not being a huge Nickelback fan, I wasn’t all that excited. My friend, Abbey, who I brought with was. I would have been happy leaving after Bush, but I now I can say yes, I have been to a Nickelback show.They opened with their latest hit, This Means War into Something In Your Mouth. Two of the songs I actually like from the Candian boys. So far so good on the Rocking out level. They continue on with Never Again and I start to think, hey, maybe I really do like Nickelback….but then they play Photograph. Again, like Seether, the slow songs are fan favs, but not for this chick. Am I hard to please? Absolutely. I also realize they played for thousands of fans that night, and can’t please everyone. They did have some pyrotechnics behind them, which I have to give props to Chad for singing right in front of the hot flames. Sitting in the seats I could feel the heat from the flames, I could not imagine how hot it was on the floor and the stage. They did have an apparatus set up in the middle of the floor where they played a few hits. If you wanted to go to the show for strictly rock music, much like I went for, you were probably disappointed by all of the cross-over hits they played. Is it annoying? For some, but again, they have a huge fan base from Rock stations to Hot A/C stations. Do I like their slower Hot A/C songs, No. Do I like the harder rock, obviously. I feel the rock was lacking, but they did put on a great show. Interaction with the crowd, stage presence, just having fun performing. One of the coolest parts was Daniel’s drum solo. Holy crap! Best part of the show. Well worth sticking out the rest of the show for. I love drummers. That’s the one instrument I would love to learn. He rocked it! They did an encore like every other band, and finished with Figured You Out. Like I said earlier, I took notes on the songs all the bands performed, and my final note for Nickelback……”Waited til the very end for some hard rock. Wtf. Or not. Just a few guitar riffs. Then loud fire [bleep]. Whatever.” Would I see Nickelback again? No. If they were on the lineup I would probably skip out and hit the beer stand. Seeing them once is enough. If you do like Nickelback, I would say yes, see them in concert. But if you are looking for a harder rock show, Nickelback is not the way to go.

Overall, I would give the Here & Now Tour a C+/B-. If Seether would have played harder rock along with less Hot A/C from Nickelback I would have enjoyed it more. When you take a shot before Lullaby..that does not classify you as a rocker…sorry!

Did you go to the show? What were your thoughts? Comment below or just tear apart my unprofessional review. Oh, I did take pictures, but they all turned out blurry…iPhones are not always the best at taking concert pictures when you are not next to the stage.