You know you’re at a rock concert when the musicians on stage have to stop the show to address a growing sensation that threatens to distract them from further playing: naked women. Yes, the unrated nature of Nickelback’s concert Blu-ray Live at Sturgis 2006 allows for copious amounts of naked women, vulgarity and some good ol’ fashioned rock n’ roll. The set list for the concert features songs off the albums Silver Side Up, The Long Road and All the Right Reasons. Recorded in hi-definition the concert offers s decent amount of audible and visual stimuli but even the most loyal fan will find the disc to be far too short with only an hour worth of music.
Nickelback had its first bout of international success with Silver Side Up which featured hits like “How You Remind Me” and “Too Bad”, the latter of which is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having sat at the #1 spot on music charts for 20 weeks. Okay, even if you don’t like Nickelback that’s a respectable feat. The world seems to think so at least. However, it’s not just the band that makes this particular concert worth recording, it’s the audience.
Filmed in Sturgis, the concert marked the town’s biggest event of the year, The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which brings upwards of 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts into the city on a yearly basis in the first week of every August. So what are 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts to listen to when the day’s races have ended? Apparently the best choice is Chad Kroeger and his Nickelback compatriots wailing out an hour-long set.
Track list:
“Animals”
“Woke Up This Morning”
“Photograph”
“Because of You”
“Far Away”
“Never Again”
“Savin’ Me”
“Someday”
“Side of a Bullet”
“How You Remind Me”
“Too Bad”
“Figured You Out”
The songs blend nicely into one another and every now and then Kroeger does the requisite talking to the crowd that you’d expect at a concert. “Do you wanna help sing this next song?” The audience almost always returns an inaudible reply which singers assume means yes, but really no one has any idea. In this case, Kroeger also, as mentioned above, points out the astounding number of naked women seated on the shoulders of the men who’ve brought them to the concert. On one hand you can’t blame him for commenting because, as he says, it’s awfully distracting for anyone, but the fact that the camera then pans to them and then lingers is somewhat silly.
The concert’s presentation in hi-definition really makes the audio sound crisp and if you’re so fortunate as to have a decent soundsystem attached to your Blu-ray setup you’re in for a nice musical experience. On the bright side, at least they didn’t attempt to make this concert in 3D – they exercised self control and realized that simply filming the concert in the highest definition available would create a dynamic presentation. A light show with pyrotechnics accompany the interesting camera angles which all create a worthwhile Blu-ray purchase for the diehard fans.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The disc actually has a decent amount of featurettes including a 17-minute documentary about Nickelback and the concert and another about Sturgis. If you were wondering why Nickelback chose this concert and why they’re relevant to a celebration of motorcycles, these are the pieces to watch. Once you’ve burned through the documentaries you can take a look at the concert photo gallery (which anyone but the most diehard of fans would do best to avoid) and then wander on over to the lone music video of “Rockstar”. Now, the inclusion of “Rockstar”’s music video on the disc begs the question: why wasn’t the song in the set list? Considering how short the concert is there was room for at least 4-5 more songs, and with 3 acclaimed albums and two pre-celebrity ones to choose from, there’s no reason they didn’t play more.
It’s an impressive looking performance but that can’t distract from how short it is.
"Nickelback: Live at Sturgis 2006" is on sale October 13, 2009 and is rated NR. Concert-Film. Directed by Daniel E Catullo III. Starring Chad Kroeger.
