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Nickelback | Live At Home

Your living room is a stadium!
DVD, Roadrunner/CNR

Tekst: Sven Schlijper

Publicatiedatum: 18 december 2002

Right, so in the interview with this band at this year's Lowlands Festival, I made it quite clear what I thought of their music. Also, Ryan Vikedal, then and there, announced the upcoming release of a DVD featuring their homecoming show from a mega-arena-size ice hockey hall (Skyreach Center) in Edmonton, Canada. Well here it is, Nickelback is live, at home!

So, Nickelback's likeable band member and interview partner, drummer Ryan, summed up the band's mission statement as: aiming to play for loads of people and offering the crowds a great time, possible sending them home humming some tunes on their way out. No matter what this silly little critic says, they do succeed at least at that goal and even quite easily surpass it, when judged by this DVD's performance. Yeah, I might be wrong, I admit. This has in fact nothing to do with post-grunge, fake alternative rock, like the 'tortured' souls of Live and Bush vomit up. This is stadium rock, full bloodily so. With all the perfect, quite easy rock songs, and the catchy choruses, this concert reflects more of Bon Jovi and the likes. Only a lot louder. Nickelback is a true stadium rock act and takes the format all the way.

Music for the millions, try to do it! It takes some talent to write a show full of strong punchline tracks and pull it off live. Nickelback's live show DVD turns your room into a rock palace! Stunning fast 16 camera video editing in true MTV style, truckloads of different camera angles all across the venue and stage, and superb sounds: It's all there. Extremely fat guitars, showing how good a drummer Vikedal actually is: pounding drums all the way through — injected jet fuel rock 'n' roll vibes. And what about the light show and pyro? Amazingly huge show and spot-on timing of special effects, all in true mega act fashion.

The band is fine, the show great. This being a DVD, how about the extras? Well, where to start? Yes, the song selection is okay and subtitles always add a little bit too much of a karaoke feel, but the special features are crammed full of goodies, like three videos (and one making of), 'Behind the Scenes' (a short film from Brussels, Belgium), 'Dressing Room,' After Party,' and 'Montage'; two songs from the show to direct yourself; a note on charity; and a web link. All in all, you get around 45 minutes of extras. That's what I'd call good use of the possibilities the DVD medium offers.

Highlights of the show include a long jam during 'Where Do I Hide' and the following song, a cover of Alice in Chains' 'It Ain't Like That,' together with Jerry Cantrell. During the extras, the 'Dressing Room' bit premieres some 'new' songs (of which the acoustic one is a cover song 'Mistake' from the band Bog Wreck) and gives a sneak peak at the soundcheck. Also, the montage and director' s section give a good idea of the amount of effort it takes to record a show of this magnitude.

To sum it up: Regardless of the music, Nickelback Live at Home is a must for any fan of stadium rock. And an example of how a live DVD can really be a very, very nice piece of documentation.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/nickelback/live-at-home/2150/
Meer Nickelback op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/nickelback