Dark Horse Tour heats up Scottrade Center

D.Anne Vollmayer, Reporter
April 26, 2010
Filed under Opinions, Reviews

There could not have been more drunk people in one room than on April 23, when I was at the Dark Horse Tour 2010, featuring Nickeback, Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown and Sick Puppies.

After a confusing mini-van ride mixed with a scary first time MetroLink ride, my friends and I arrived at Scottrade Center around 6:15 p.m. We  thought that would make us early,  but the show actually was starting 15 minutes early, meaning we were now late.

During Sick Puppies’ set my five friends and I found our seats, which wasn’t too hard because we were practically touching the ceiling, but we had a great view of the enormous stage and the giant screens that did close-up camera shots of Nickelback, but no other bands.

Sick Puppies and Shinedown both played about four to five songs each, which was more songs than I knew, and Breaking Benjamin played about six.

The story of my life is getting stuck sitting behind the large man standing. And it didn’t fail tonight. Two rows in front of me, out of no where, came a giant and he does not ever take his seat, so naturally the man directly in front of me stands too, forcing me onto my feet.

The point of this story is my review of the atmosphere of the concert. Besides the really cute guy who talked to me everytime he made a beer run, everyone else seemed to have their panties in a bunch. The row of beyond middle aged couples behind us clapped and shouted when we sat down. One man said, “Thank God, I can finally see.”

Well, I heard you. I typically consider myself a nice person and would have gladly sat down if he had asked, or maybe he should have stood up if it was that important, but it just put a damper on the entire concert-mood-setting.

The music was great. Every band played a variety of songs: old, new, slow, fast, dance-y, etc. But Breaking Benjamin did have pretty depressing videos playing on the big screen while they were singing.

As far as movement goes, the only two bands that graced the front end of the long stage were Breaking Benjamin and Nickelback, the others stayed even further away from me. But Nickelback did start with a bang, literally. A sound similar to a gunshot ‘fired off’ their set, and during every bang, boom, or thump during their performance fire shot out from various places on the stage.

My favorite part? During the song Photographby Nickelback, they showed actual pictures of lead singer, Chad Kroeger, actually growing up. It was touching and cute while my best friend and I watched all the gross, old, drunk couples around us make out.