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About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2010)
16 Entertainment verpowe concert B ailey M iddleton mmMM _________ There was a 50 percent chance that I w as going to be meeting the band Nick- elback and even though that didn’t happen, it was still an amazing experi ence filled with great rock music and unforgettable encounters— including scream ing fans, many, many women in high heels and a number of 40 year- old men who had far too much to drink. The pyro technics were so powerful that I could feel the heat of fire surging on my face even 50 yards ggfcay. The Nickelback "Dark Horse" tour opened with three bands: Sick Puppies, Shinedown and Breaking Benjamin. I chose to arrive late enough to miss them as I was really only going for the star attraction. We had a great view in the 100s section, just slightly to the side of the stage. Being a rock concert, all we could smell was booze, cigarette smoke and the vomit from the lady up a few rows who had "one too many." These were slightly distracting, rw y *, A \ v' /w j m / * m y im * v/V È l 0 ïm J ! Photo courtesy of Chris Knight. The Patriot-News Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, lead guitarist and singer, and Mike Kroeger, bass guitarist, perform "Something In Your Mouth” at their Portland concert on May S. The show which included such hits as "Far Away", "Saving Me", and "Burn It To The Ground” was memorable on many levels. June a lot of rock but as soon as the lights went out and the speakers exploded, I w as sucked into the rock. When Nickelback came on, the crowd went wild and a huge black curtain that had covered the stage dropped to reveal the band. Thev were fantastic live; they didn't miss a note and their vocals were perfectly in pitch. The lights were amazing as well—the stage lit up from left to right with shades of red, blue, green, purple, white showers of sparks and bursts of flames. They played popular hits such as "Photograph," "Far Away," "Saving Me" and "If Today Was Your Last Day." The band engaged the audi ence, but there were a lot of "f-bom bs" dropped, which got old fast. Chad Kroeger, lead guitarist and singer, requested all the men in the audience dance with the girls they brought (or who they were brought by, in my case) to the love song, "Far Away," which was a sweet addition to the concert. After a while though, with the concert was coming to an end and the smell of marijuana, vomit, booze becoming overwhelming, claustrophobia began to set in. We left early, beating the traffic, so it wasn't all bad. , Nickelback's songs were great, and the band was very interactive with the fans. They opened with an ear splitting performance of "Burn It To The Ground" and even perform ed a Metallica song. When they performed "Something In Your Mouth," they threw out bananas to the front rows. It was an incredible ex perience,and surely one I'll never forget. Why? it was full of fantastic songs and also stereotypical events such as a drunken fan crowd surfing who was promptly hauled away by security7 and the band screaming"PortIand" near ly every five minutes. The band was even bet ter live than on its albums, though the narration was very basic, and even a little cliche and overplanned. It was a predictable and stereotypical rock concert, but Nickelback brought the rock. wmm R Twitter proves useless way to communicate with others PiiÈsæpi! Twiner continued from page 5 What else I find quite pathetic about Twitter is how many people are so fascinated by such boring things. I visited Twitter myself to check it out and I cannot even tell you how many people I saw blogging about random and boring subjects. For example, one may tweet and say: "I am at work, working," or "I am going to go run." How incredibly intriguing and important that is, thank you very much for sharing. I mean, come on, there has to be a better way to waste time! When surveyed, 68 percent of WLHS students use Facebook more than anything else, and almost 80 percent don’t even use Twitter. For the 20 percent that have or do use Twitter, most like the site because of celebrity, band or movie updates. "I really don’t understand what Twitter is for. Personally, when it comes to things like Twitter, I’m somewhat worried for the world," Patricia Palczewska, junior, said. "There comes to be a line between updating a friend on important events and ridiculously posting your every move. Society is beginning to desperately rely on outside factors to support it, quell its insecurities, and fulfill its need for attention. Twitter, for me, crosses this social line." I guess that it’s a personal preference to utilize sites like Twitter; you either like them or you don’t. Some people choose to spend every free minute they have chatting about random things with random people, playing games, making new friends, hunting down celebs or other things on the computer, while others tend to find more valuable ways to spend their time. Hey, I am all in for talking to friends and family all the time, but there is a time and a place where it becomes annoying. When I visited Twitter, most of the top tweets are about fan clubs for bands, celebrities or movies, but there is the occasional random person just hanging around behind the monitor wasting life away chatting about useless topics. I think tweeting is great as long as it is important. For example, a concert date or information on when and where to get tickets for it. Tweeting is really stupid when it is totally random and pointless, like letting ■■i people know what you had for lunch today. Sorry, but no one cares! What I have to say about Twitter is: use it to your advantage, and if you can’t, get a life.
