Nickelback and Monster Truck, Genting Arena, Birmingham - review

And now, having sat there for a couple of hours taking in everything they have to offer, there are rights and wrongs to this reputation.

But let's start from the beginning, and what a beginning it was. Another Canadian group, Monster Truck, were opening for their compatriots. And boy, can these guys rock.

Think of them as a Wolfmother-lite. They have some venom in their music but they also keep things straight for those who may not usually be a fan of the genre. It is a difficult line to tread, but they always stick on the right side of it.

Don't Tell Me How To Live is an example of when they hit it hard and heavy. A real, middle finger up blues vibe channels hidden aggression and the whole thing sounds ace.

For political rabble rouser For The People Nickelback's guitar maestro Ryan Peake joined the stage which brought screams from the crowd, and they were just showing off when it came to the excellent Sweet Mountain River.

For myself the night had peaked here, but Nickelback were still to offer moments of entertainment amongst their set.

The main problem with the group is identity, or shtick if you like. They talk and act like a rock band. They do shots of Jaeger on stage. They talk about sex and they namecheck influences from their childhood like thrash metal gods Slayer. And then launch into another ballad.

It is confusing and a little lost at times. The juxtaposition doesn't always sit well, with the pop aura of Peake and frontman Chad Kroeger clashing with his older brother Michael on bass.

When they do let their rock growl out they are pretty impressive. Both Chad and Peake are very good guitarists, as was shown in the stomping riffs of Something In Your Mouth – yes, that gratuitous but well euphemised sex song every rocker has in their repertoire.

It is worth saying here that they had committed the cardinal sin of turning everything up too much once Monster Truck had left. Meaning when things were this heavy the drums overpowered all and the guitar could get a little lost. But this didn't affect their lighter songs much.

When their well-known ballads started to appear Chad had the crowd singing along with hits like Too Bad, Photograph and the excellent track Hero he wrote with Josey Scott of Saliva for the Spider-Man movie, arguably his best work.

When their all-conquering hit Rock Star appeared they pulled their male and female from the crowd for 'Rock Star Karaoke' and the guy was so high on life it was great to watch. For that moment you would have loved to have been him, obviously a super fan.

But the problem was that the heavy start and ends to the set were split up by a huge chunk of ballads which did get tedious and did sound too middle of the road. This is where those criticisms of them stand up. They could have done with playing around with the set list more and breaking the monotony up.

But those of us who stayed for the encore were treated to a great rendition of Foo Fighters' Everlong where Peake took over vocals and showed his qualities as a front man.

Alright, but could have been better. I would have preferred to see Monster Truck play the whole night!

By Leigh Sanders