Canadian hard-rock hitmakers Nickelback returned to Minneapolis on Tuesday for what seemed like their umpteenth packed-to-the-roof Target Center concert, on another tour to support another in a long line of albums with singles that earn incessant radio play.
Let's break from tradition and offer at least one unpredictable thing about the show: This is not going to be yet another snide review of music critics' most-hated rock band of the decade.
There will be no jokes about frontman Chad Kroeger's weirdly sculpted rock-star hair, nor any lines that link the band to the long line of other questionable Canadian rock groups.
Instead, here's a list of 10 positives -- that the 15,500 fans might tell their friends about the concert.
1. The band performed for two hours and even threw in a drum solo. Woo-hoo.
2. Those two hours offered more explosions, flaming devices and other pyrotechnic effects than a "Fast & the Furious" movie. Sure, critics say the band uses pyro to cover up the brawny sameness of its music. But brawny sameness didn't stop the latest "F&F" from taking in $72.5 million last weekend.
3. They avoided trying to be coy or cunning with their raunchy lyrics, like AC/DC does. They just come right out with the sexism. Case in point, during "Figure You Out," Kroeger drew a roomful of screams when he growled, "I like your pants around your feet/ I like the dirt on your knees."
4. The band's montage of photographs was extremely literal during -- what else? -- its mega-hit "Photograph." When Kroeger sang, "This is where I went to school," they showed a school on the big screen. When he offered the most universal memory he could possibly sing about, "We used to listen to the radio," they showed a radio.
