NICKELBACK // OVO HYDRO, GLASGOW
NICKELBACK LIVE AT GLASGOW’S OVO HYDRO WITH
SUPPORT FROM ‘THE LOTTERY WINNERS’
★★★★☆ (4/5)
NICKELBACK PERFORMING AT GLASGOW’S OVO HYDRO
PHOTOCREDIT: PAUL STORR
Tonight's openers The Lottery Winners are quite possibly one of the most exciting and eccentric ones I have ever seen.
As they take to the stage, frontman Thom Rylance informs the audience he needs to leave and that when he comes back on, he wants them to treat him as if he is famous.
Thom leaves the stage and as soon as he reappears the audience grant his wish and go wild.
This then leads to a Freddie Mercury esque "hey-o" call and response which gets everyone going for the start of their set.
Highlight of the set comes in "Letter To Myself" which sees Thom telling the crowd to believe in themselves, as if they had not then they would not have had a song with Nickelback and been out on tour with them.
The lights drop and the giant screens behind the stage roll the intro tape for tonight's headliners Nickelback.
Coming out and launching straight in to "San Quentin", the whole place goes crazy from the very start.
Frontman Chad Kroeger is great at working the crowd, and the first of many mass singalongs is incited during "Someday".
We have guitarist Ryan Peake on vocals for "Worthy To Say", and not long after Chad spots a sign saying it is this fans 80th show and they would like a guitar pick hand delivered from bassist Mike Kroeger. Mike duly obliges and drops down off stage to meet the fan, which is a great thing to see bands recognising the loyalty some people show. It also leads to some brilliant banter from Chad as he says "if I went to an 80th show of a band I'd want way more than a pick from the bass player. Can't believe you didn't ask for a smooch".
There is a t shirt cannon during "Figured You Out" which is a fun touch to the show, one even landed right behind me but someone nabbed it before I could!
The Lottery Winners are back on stage for a cover of Oasis "Don't Look Back In Anger" which if I'm being honest was completely unexpected and somewhat unnecessary, but some of the crowd seem to enjoy it.
Chad references the viral meme based on their song "Photograph" telling us that some may know this next one as "look at this graph!" before a superb rendition of the song. It's Chad and Ryan acoustic for the first half before Mike and drummer Daniel Adair are back on stage for a full band second half.
"Rockstar" sees a fan being invited onstage to do the vocals, we have Amy who informs us she cannot sing, but still makes a good go of it overall.
"Are you ready for the behemoth?" asks Chad before they perform their smash hit "How You Remind Me" which again has the room in full voice.
The song is stopped halfway through due to someone in the front of the crowd having a medical issue, with Chad jokingly saying "all the drugs kicked in at the same time" - but he makes sure they are okay before the song is restarted, and finishes the main set.
It's not long before the band are back on for an encore of "Gotta Be Somebody" and "Burn It To The Ground" to round things off completely.
Nickelback are a band who have an array of hits, and are definitely worth seeing for them alone!
