Did you have any plans Friday, October 8th, at 6:15? If you were are Rupp Arena, you would have been at the biggest party in Lexington, KY and possibly the biggest party in Kentucky. Those that were privileged enough to be at Rupp Arena on Friday night witnessed a spectacular…well, spectacle. Loud music, fireworks, flames shooting into the sky and free shirts; really, there was nowhere else you should have been. For the lucky people that were in attendance at Rupp Arena on Friday night got to party with three of some of the biggest names in Rock; Buckcherry, Three Days Grace, and Nickelback. Wish you were there? Well my friend, read on. After imagining what this concert was like, you will be foaming at the mouth in anticipation about the next time these great performers come riding into Lexington.

Kicking off the night of loud music and dancing was a band that does not need an introduction. Everyone knows from their super hit about a crazy “woman friend”. If you guessed Buckcherry, you are correct. Buckcherry came out to start the concert off on the right foot. As Josh Todd started singing you could hear one glaring problem that could have plagued Buckcherry for their entire set. There are sound checks before a band comes out play for a reason, right? Well that’s what I thought at least, but apparently not. With the rest of Buckcherry rocking out, playing the best music they can, they also drowned out Josh, you could not hear any word he was saying. Then, if there is, in my opinion, a huge problem like that during a show, it should take less than two songs to fix the problem. If I wasn’t such a fan of Buckcherry, I doubt I would have known what songs they were playing, but the problem did get fixed eventually.

The rest of Buckcherry’s set was flawless, flawless as in the sense of the music part. There was the one big problem that was not their fault. An opening band’s job is to pump the crowd up. By the time the opening group leaves the stage, every person in the stadium needs to be up on their feet dancing around, singing, and whatever else people do. Sadly, Buckcherry did not accomplish that. The strange part was though, that it didn’t seem to be Buckcherry’s fault. This marks the third time I have seen Buckcherry in concert and they ALWAYS get the crowd going crazy and having fun. For the majority of the people in the crowd for this concert though, didn’t get the energy that Buckcherry was throwing in their faces. I know it might sound like all I have to say about Buckcherry are bad things. If that is what you are reading from this, then I am sorry. Buckcherry put on one hell of a show! Just as I will say with Three Days Grace and Nickelback, go see Buckcherry, you will have a good time.

Moving on now to the group that got me excited about this concert and really wanting to come; Three Days Grace. Really, the review for Three Days Grace could easily be summed up in one sentence. Three Days Grace always puts on an amazing show; if you are a rock fan, go see them! There it was, the sentence that sums up everything about Three Days Grace performance. Don’t worry though, I won’t leave you with just that. I will explain how I came up with such a sentence.

Three Days Grace took to the stage after a rather short intermission after Buckcherry, and well did what Buckcherry could not, in more ways than one. Three Days Grace was not hindered by sound quality issues at all during their performance. The stage crew knew how to get their instruments and microphones perfect so every great guitar riff to pounding drum beat to the powerful lyrics. It was perfect. Maybe I got a little too into that description…oh well, Three Days Grace deserves it.

As I mentioned earlier, Three Days Grace did multiple things that Buckcherry sadly could not do. The second one was pumping up the crowd. Around the middle of their set Three Days Grace blessed everyone in attendance with one of their best hits “Home” off their first album. Towards the middle of the song the band slowed down the song and put on repeat for Adam to make a request from the fans. This request wasn’t anything outrageous at all, it was really simple. Stand up. That’s it. A vast majority of the crowd was still sitting down, even during 3DG’s great performance. The fans sadly did not seem to listen to Adam’s demands at all, so he offered an ultimatum. Either everyone stand up and the concert will start back up, or Adam will sit down and expect us to put on a show for him. Slowly I could see people standing up, just so there would be something to watch. Just then, Adam got an even better idea. He would come into the stands in order to get people up and jumping around. Do I need to tell you that option worked? Well, it did. As Adam started walking through the crowed, “Home” started back up and eventually ended once Adam had made his way around the arena and back on stage.

It is plainly obvious when you hear people chanting a bands name after they leave the stage that what you just witnessed was a great show. Well, Three Days Grace put on just that. I have never seen a bad show by Three Days Grace, and this one was even better than the last one. I guess I have given Three Days Grace enough praise, so I will stop and move on to the main attraction of the night.

Picture this with me. You are sitting in your seats waiting for the headliner of the show to hit the stage and blow the roof off of Rupp Arena. Over on the stage you are watching the stage crew set up microphones, speakers, and a giant sheet covering a huge chunk of the stage from ceiling to floor. A few minutes pass, the lights go out, and what happens? The crowd goes crazy in anticipation of what they are about to be a part of. Now time crawls by. It might have only been two minutes we wait, but it felt like a life time. With one fluid motion, a deafening bang echoed through Rupp Arena and the curtain fell with Nickelback already rocking out before the curtain hit the floor. Fireworks blowing up all around them, flames shooting into the air, lights flashing and blinding you, and loud hard rock music. Sound fun? Yes, I agree, it sounds like a tanker boat full of fun, and it was.

There was something that just didn’t seem right about this concert from the start. Why would Nickelback be having this super intense show for just a regular concert? Last time they come into town on their Dark Horse tour, they used a lot of fireworks and fire, but this year’s tour put Dark Horse to shame. That thought didn’t ruin the show for me, but it did stick in my head all the way through. Well, all the way through until Chad Kroeger decided to tell us. Concert DVD. That’s right, this year’s Dark Horse tour is being filmed for an upcoming DVD. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I might see my beautiful mug in it… anyway, back to the review.

Nickelback’s stage had a thrust that shot out into the middle of the crowd a good 40 feet at least. During the majority of the start of the show, Chad would occasionally walk out about 4 feet onto it, but that was it. You knew they would eventually use it, or else why would they have included it as part of the stage. So eventually the entire band came out to the front of the thrust to play some songs. As they were walking out, you realized rather quickly that there were no drums. Not to worry though, right as you thought that, there was a transformation that took place on the stage and a part of the floor started rotating. On the other side was a drum set that was attached to the floor. Even with the thousands of other fans that were in the arena that night, Nickelback was good at making it feel like they were putting on a show just for you. The songs that they played while out here were not acoustic, but compared to the rest of their show you could have considered these songs an acoustic-like section.

Here is an easy question. Do you like alcohol? Well, do you like FREE alcohol? I believe the vast majority of you reading this just answered yes to both or one of those questions. Well, if you were lucky enough to be in one of the front rows of fans standing on the floor while Nickelback was out on the thrust playing music, you got free alcohol. A stage help rolled out a cart filled with shots for the fans. Doing that was a great way to show that they care about the fans, even though I was nowhere near the stage.

After their little stint out at the end of the stage, Nickelback retreated to their main area to continue what they are better at doing; fire, fireworks, explosions, and rocking really hard. I have kind of hit the same wall I hit with Three Days Grace. I don’t know what more to say about Nickelback’s performance than it was spectacular. Last time they were at Rupp Arena I couldn’t think how Nickelback could top that performance because it was so good and so fun. I spoke too soon. I am not going to say that again because I know for their next concert, they will go farther than they went for this year’s concert.

This was a great night for rock music. The bands were great, the music was fantastic and the fans were having a blast. Easily one of the better concert experiences I have had in awhile. If you were in attendance at Rupp Arena on Friday night, then good job for being there. If you were not at Rupp Arena on Friday night then shame on you, and don’t miss the Nickelback concert next time they come rolling into town.

Blogged by: Kyle Jessee
Photos by: Paul Hooper