I went to see Nickelback last night and I enjoyed it more than I expected, although I had sore ears afterwards because there seemed to be a lot of distortion, especially from the the mics, and that just hurts my ears. I spent quite a few times with fingers pressed into my ears. It’s ages since I’ve been to the SECC and the last time I was there, I had standing tickets. Because of the whole ear trouble I have, I prefer seated areas so at least I know I will enjoy myself without feeling crowded in and without receiving a beer shower from twats.

The support band Black Stone Cherry started promptly at 7:30 and just seemed to be one big long noise for 40 minutes. They were definitely from the “we’ve got long hair so we’re going to throw our heads around so you can see how pretty it is” brigade. All their songs sounded the same to me and I couldn’t really make out what they were singing about so it was a relief when they finished. To be fair, the lead singer came back to sing Highway To Hell with Chad Kroeger later on and he was really good so maybe they just weren’t my cup of tea.

A round of pyrotechnics signalled the arrival of Nickelback at 8:30 and had us all jumping out of our seats with fright because the lights hadn’t even gone down. My introduction to the band happened at the first Bon Jovi gig I went to so I knew they were pretty good live even if I only knew one song. This time, I knew most of their songs but not well enough to sing along even if I had wanted to. Again, the mic distortion really spoiled it for me and what is with making the music so loud you drown out the singer? Not good.

The crowd down the front seemed to be really enjoying themselves and Chad was quite good at telling stories, although I felt his constant talk about getting laid and drunk was tiresome. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. You are a grown man, Chad, not a fourteen year old boy. (Actually that sort of describes the whole Dark Horse album.) He got away with a lot because his accent was so divine. Love me, some Canadian!

There was a walkway down the middle of the crowd and the guys performed a few songs there but the speakers were all down the front and it just seemed to sound so weird from the side where we were. I spent more time watching the slide show on the main stage than looking at the band. I’ve been to a few concerts where small stages are used for more intimate songs but I don’t think it works with Nickelback’s material and certainly not with Rockstar which probably got the biggest response of the night.

Chad did his best to get the crowd singing along, and the diehard fans probably were, but there was no huge effort to get everyone in the crowd to sing the songs back to them the way bigger bands do. I was surprised the majority of people stayed seated throughout the concert because I was expecting everyone to stand as soon as the band came on. You sorta felt obliged to stay seated out of courtesy to the people sitting behind you. Nearer the end, Chad finally got everyone in the seated areas to stand up but I felt it was a little too late and he should have had them out of their seats from the beginning.

The concert ended just shy of two hours but by the time you cut out all the chit chat, it was probably down to one hour and a half. My brother and I both thought it was quite short but then we are used to longer Bon Jovi concerts. While it wasn’t the worst concert I’ve ever been too, it wasn’t the best either but my brother really enjoyed it which is the main thing because he is a bigger fan that I am. In fact, I was sitting there wishing it was 30 Seconds To Mars who were about to come on!

As usual, no concert in Glasgow is complete without the “getting home” adventure and this was no exception. This time, there were no 3 mile hikes in the pouring rain but we did get trapped in the car park for nearly an hour. It is always, always a nightmare getting out of the SECC car park but last night just really took the biscuit. We were in the middle of the car park so we had a gridlock in front of us and behind us most of the hour. Once cars managed to get in the main flow of traffic, courtesy went out of the window, and no one would let any of the cars stuck in middle aisles out. Of course, you have to pay £5 for parking and there were only two ticket booths for hundreds of cars to pass through. Why the hell you can’t pay as you go in is beyond me! At the very least, there should have been officials directing traffic and making sure there was no gridlock but I guess that would’ve been too easy.

It was entertaining watching people wandering around the car park with the “where the hell is my car” look on their faces though.

So, another concert over. I told my brother last night that in a few years time, he won’t be able to go to concerts without taking the kids along. He started laughing since he was already dreading Miley Cyrus coming over. My niece is a huge Hannah Montana fan. We so need to work on the Bon Jovi brainwashing!