Band's "Feed The Machine" Tour Hits The Woodlands Pavilion

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All Photos By Larry Petro/Petrofyed Photography

Out in support of their recently released new album, Feed The Machine, Canadian hard rock quartet NICKELBACK is in the midst of a 3 1/2 month long North American Tour which made a stop in the Bayou City of Houston, Texas on July 18th at The Woodlands Pavilion. Support for the trek comes from DAUGHTRY and rising upstart rockers SHAMAN'S HARVEST.

Given the 3-band tour package and the venue's 11pm sound curfew, the show got off to an early start and unfortunately by the time I got my credentials and got through security into the pavilion, openers SHAMAN'S HARVEST were just finishing up their set, which was a bummer because I was really looking forward to catching this band live.

DAUGHTRY was up next, fronted by one Chris Daughtry, who is living proof that you don't have to win a major talent competition to have a successful career. The fourth place finisher during the fifth season of American Idol has accomplished much in the 5 or so years since his appearance on the show, having notched back-to-back #1 albums (The self-titled debut and 2009's Leave This Town), and 4 #1 hit singles. DAUGHTRY kicked off their set with "Go Down", one of two new tracks included on their 2016 hits release, It's Not Over...The Hits So Far. His 11-song set consisted of all his major hits like "Waiting For Superman", "It's Not Over" and September", all the while thoroughly enjoying himself and his time in the spotlight. A highlight of DAUGHTRY's set took place right in the middle as Chris noted to the crowd that every performer has a song or two that they're a fan of that they'd wish they had written. He then went on to perform that song for him, a stripped down, acoustic version of METALLICA's "Nothing Else Matters", to a generous roar of approval from the capacity crowd. He concluded his set with the smash hit from his debut album, "Over You", which included crowd participation during the chorus. A slightly scary moment occurred toward the end of his set when he was handing out guitar picks to a few fans in the front row when someone (I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman) got ahold of his hand and nearly pulled him off the stage. He recovered in time to keep that from happening but his smile quickly inverted to a look of disdain at the fan in question as he resumed his place at center stage.

Setlist:

• "Go Down"
• "Feels Like Tonight"
• "Crawling Back To You"
• "Waiting For Superman"
• "Life After You"
• "Nothing Else Matters" (Acoustic METALLICA Cover)
• "Backbone"
• "It's Not Over"
• "Home"
• "September"
• "Over You"

Right around 9pm NICKELBACK took the stage. Having never seen them live before, I was really looking forward to their performance, mainly because they have traditionally toured with lots of pyro and special effects and let's face it, who doesn't like to see shit blown up during a live concert? So it was a slight disappointment that this time around the band toured with no pyro of any kind, but that letdown quickly dispersed as the band let the music do the talking, launching their 18-song appearance with the title track from their new album, Feed The Machine. Though there weren't any explosions, the stage setup was still quite impressive, with a huge half-circle LED screen positioned at the back of the stage that would preiodically show the individual band members and then on other occasions would display some pretty cool animations.

The band has seemingly gotten more than their share of shit from haters and I'm not exactly sure where it comes from. Note to you KNAC.COM readers: KNAC.COM played NICKELBACK way back when. The 'WINGER of the 2000's' as I like to refer to them, always put on a great show and tonight was no exception. With 9 albums now under their belts, they had more than enough material to choose from and made it count with selections like "Photograph", "Too Bad", "Someday", "How You Remind Me" and one of my favorites, "Something In Your Mouth". There were several notable moments as well, the first being when Chris Daughtry, who has toured with NICKELBACK on a couple of other occasions, joined the band onstage for the track "Savin' Me", which was very nicely done. Prior to the song "Rockstar", vocalist Chad Kroeger brought two fans onstage to help sing the song, then took a selfie with them before they were escorted back to their seats, no doubt a life memory for them.

The band topped off their pre-encore portion of the show with the trio of "Animals", with one of the best animations of the night playing on the screen behind them, "Figured You Out" and the hit that really got the ball rolling for the band, "How You Remind Me". NICKELBACK returned for a triple encore of "Gotta Be Somebody", "This Afternoon" and the barnburner "Burn It To The Ground". Say what you will about the band, but with sold out shows a rule rather than the exception, they're definitely no flash-in-the-pan, they're here to stay and have designed a winning formula to stay successful.

Setlist:

• "Feed The Machine"
• "Woke Up This Morning"
• "Photograph"
• "Far Away"
• "Too Bad"
• "Someday"
• "Lullaby"
• "Savin' Me" (W/ Chris Daughtry)
• "Song On Fire"
• "Something In Your Mouth"
• "Rockstar"
• "When We Stand Together"
• "Animals"
• "Figured You Out"
• "How You Remind Me"

Encore:

• "Gotta Be Somebody"
• "This Afternoon"
• "Burn It To The Ground"

Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Larry Petro/Petrofyed Photography