Cool Cherry Cream

Wendesday, July 18, 2007 at Sarnia Bayfest, Ontario

Wednesday was the Nickelback concert at Sarnia Bayfest. I'm not a fan of Nickelback at all, but since we were here for the other concerts, we went. I wouldn't say I hate Nickelback, but I wouldn't say I hate any band. I'm not a particular fan of his voice either, and I think their songs all sound the same, but as my brother tells me, I think that about a lot of bands. But come on, a lot of bands do sound the same, and that makes them crappy.

First things first. Since Nickelback was added to the schedule after the other three were announced, we had to book another night in the hotel, so it was a different room than for the other nights. We ended up on the fifth floor, which is the "special" floor, because you need your room key to get to the floor. The rooms are also nicer, and have really high ceilings. We ran into a cleaning lady who told us that one of the bands was staying the hotel, but maybe just one of the opening bands? So that's kind of cool. But not really.

My brother and I made a habit of sitting in the window and watching the people in the parking lot and in the lower balconies. We nicknamed one woman "Stupid Lady", because she went out to her truck to get something, but forgot her car keys, then came back and her keys got stuck. She was our favourite "character". We also noticed two guys in rooms next to each other who had matching lanyards and we figured they were roadies (which they were). We affectionately named them "Roadie with hat" and "Roadie with no shoes". We saw them later setting up at the concerts, but sans hat and plus shoes, so it became "The roadie formerly known as roadie with no shoes" and so on. As I said though, we had to switch rooms after the first night, so we lost our vantage point for watching the show.

We drove out to Swiss Chalet for supper at about 5:00 (since the doors open at 6:00), and while we were there, it started raining. Really raining. Thunder and lightning too. The lights actually flicked a few times. Now, I like the rain, but not when you're going to an outdoor concert.

So, we drove along, back to the hotel, and, well, the streets were just flooded. I mean seriously flooded. Some places you were driving through like a foot of water. I saw a few cars spraying up water on the side like ten feet in the air. It was insane, and at one point, the car died. Eventually, we got back to the hotel, and it was only a ten or so minute walk to the park.

We bought VIP tickets for the week, and there are two VIP sections up front; one half where they serve alcohol and the other where they don't. So unless you had a VIP ticket, you'd have to be farther back, past the catwalk, so your chance for really good seats is well, not good. My brother and I were second "row" (since it was standing only) and a little off to the left of the stage, but really great seats.

The opening band was Faber Drive, so, nobody. They reminded me of Simple Plan, I think. That's the guy with the annoying voice, right? The guy who if I was him, I would be anything but a singer? Yeah. I think they sounded like that group. And I mean, if you like that kind of, pseudo-emo stuff, then I guess you'd like them. But not my style. They were introducing one song and the singer with the half blonde/half black hair says "this song is called 'Love and Sex'". Oh yeah, reeeal original, I thought.

Next was Hedley, which I'm told is a guy who was runner up in "Canadian Idol". He was very… flamboyant. Like, very. When he came on stage, there were quite a few people around us commenting on his short shorts. I think he was the only opening act we've seen so far (as we've also seen Aerosmith, but more about that later) that went out on the catwalk. Everyone else just kind of stayed back. But I think I'd heard of Hedley before, though not any of their songs. So I guess he's one of the bigger opening acts, and probably more comfortable up there. I didn't like the music, but at least he was entertaining.

After another little wait between acts, Nickelback came on stage at about 9:00. Well, not much I can really say about them. They had lots of fireworks and fire and stuff, which was cool, I guess. At one point in the show, they brought out these "cannons" that were more like guns that shot out t-shirts, but since we were right up front we didn't catch any. Later, they brought out a tray of cups with beer in them and threw those out in the crowd. My brother said he got some on him, but I don't think I did. That would've been real fun, standing around for half a day, with your back or legs or feet or neck or etc hurting, wet from the rain earlier (though I don't think it actually rained during Nickelback, a bit during the other acts), and now you get covered with sticky beer? Yeah. Real fun.

They did "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)" by Elton John, but other than that, the only song I knew was their early song, "How You Remind Me" or something like that? I actually had it on a CD back when I listened to crappy music… not that that means anything… A few other songs sounded familiar, since I've probably heard it on the radio (but not by choice). "Rockstar" I think, and my brother tells me the song from the encore is called "Too Bad", and I think I've heard that too.

So, that's about all I have to say about that. It was cool that we were so close, but it would've been cooler if I actually liked the band.

Aerosmith coming soon!