Nickelback, ex-Alice Cantrell: Live at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS -''Nice to see Nickelback's got some fans in this neck of the woods,'' announced frontman Chad Kroeger, whose own neck of the woods is somewhere up in the
north throat of Calgary, Alberta.

'' You guys came here to rock ... well for the next hour-and 20-minutes, you're butt belongs to me,'' explained the singer, his band erupting in grand rock star style with their opener,
''Woke Up This Morning,'' accompanied by bombastic explosions and heat- searing flames that shot 20-feet into the air.

Six years ago, brothers Chad and Mike Kroeger, along with their cousin Brandon and guitar player Ryan Peake, formed the nucleus of the band that named their ensemble after bassist Mike Kroeger's oft-repeated stuck-at-the-cash-register phrase: ''Here's your nickel back.''

Saturday, the four-piece band ran through a retrospective spanning its six-year career, including a musical ode to magic mushrooms (accompanied with a swirly grey fog-producing machine) and an invocation to the masses - answered by the faithful with a volley of devil-headed, index-finger-and-pinky salutes.

Featuring classic rock-styled pyrotechnics, ritual guitar-smashing, a blatant ode to cannabis
and a female flasher, the nearly 4,000 Nickelback fans attending Saturday night's concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center got to see a bit of everything, and perhaps a little more than they'd anticipated.

Nickelback's stage looked as if it had been laid out by some trippy feng-shui master. A pair of ramps framed neat rows of proportionally stacked amplifiers. A drum riser sat at center stage, and a backdrop fitted with a giant peering eyeball hung above the stage, periodically shooting a ray of light out of its leather ''pupil.''

Beneath the wide brim of his signature white cowboy hat, bassist Mike Kroeger pushed the rhythm section with tight syncopated riffs, freeing brother Chad to flail on guitar and deliver the vocals. The band saved the best for last.

''May we play for you some brand new unrecorded Nickelback?'' singer Kroeger asked before launching into the band's fiercest rocker, a catchy and lyrically vicious ''I Figured You,'' before ending with the hit ''Too Bad.''

The encore featured acoustic versions of ''Hero'' and ''You Remind Me,'' after which Kroeger smashed his acoustic guitar over the drum riser, sending shards of wood flying across the stage. Then, he brought back the entire band for an electrified finale of ''You Remind Me.''

Earlier in the evening, ex-Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell performed with a five piece ensemble whose trio of guitarists created dense layers of seductive noise on a stage bathed in deep blue and crimson lights.

Performing both old and new material - Cantrell's latest CD ''Degradation Trip'' was released this week - Cantrell's set built in intensity as it progressed, bringing the crowd to its feet during an anthemic ''Cut You In,'' and the moody metallica ''Down in the Hole,'' where, poised on knees at center stage, Cantrell wailed like a vintage guitar god before exiting amid a blaze of feedback leaving the crowd panting for more.

But the audience's pop-hero like adulation of Nickelback was apparent, dancing to the group's tunes while singing along to the words.

By evening's end, a sated crowd made its way to the exits, the older ones with ears happily ringing, and the very young with stars in their eyes.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
published in The Saratogian, June 20, 2002