Steve Russell/Toronto Star

Behold! Chad Kroeger can make guitar picks fly — with his mind!

Nickelback are late taking the stage after support acts Saving Abel and Seether, but just as the sold-out ACC crowd are starting to get rowdy, the Albertan rockers come out flying with “Something In Your Mouth.” The song is backed up by porn visuals on the screens (just in case we don’t get the subtext), and orange stage pyrotechnics that go up like ejaculate. Even in a recession, it’s nice to see a band with a special-effects budget to blow.

Frontman Chad Kroeger is feeling chatty tonight, and obviously at his ease despite staring down a packed arena. “It’s great to be back in Toronna!” he screams, more than once. Getting into his stride, he finishes “Figured You Out” by making the devil sign. With both hands. Then he engages the crowd in a rousing game of “I say 'Nickel,' you say 'Back!'” The crowd wins.

You can't deny that — despite the constant critical drubbing — Nickelback have won some devoted followers over the years. A band with the gall to title a song “Something In Your Mouth” obviously don’t take themselves too seriously, but some of their fans really, really do. One girl wears a homemade shirt that says “Hamilton Hearts Nickelback” in glitter. Kroeger informs us that the band are playing tomorrow night, before adding, “and we plan on getting fuckin' drunk tonight!” (It’s unclear whether this is meant as a slight against Steeltown.) Kroeger takes a time-out to taunt Seether's Shaun Morgan, who is too hungover to come out and sing with the band. “We partied pretty hard with Kid Rock in Detroit," he shouts, "and clearly some of us can’t party till 10 in the morning!”

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Nickelback concert: “Gotta Be Somebody” gets some cheers of recognition, and though the mostly over-30 crowd in attendance tonight aren’t exactly moshing it up by the stage, most of them start to clap and the devil sign is spreading through the stands like a dangerously uncool virus. It's soon followed by “Burn It To The Ground,” an ode to going out and getting really wasted that produces an enthusiastic sing-along. Flames erupt around the stage just to emphasize the point, and then drummer Daniel Adair is left alone with the lingering pyrotechnic smoke. Adair launches into an incredible solo that lasts almost 10 minutes, building momentum until his hands blur into his drumsticks on the video screens behind the stage. Finally, the band returns and launch into “How You Remind Me,” without which, Kroeger says, Nickelback would still be calling their cousins trying to scare up an audience at the Horseshoe.

All in all, the show provides few surprises, high-tech tricks aside. The visuals behind the stage could certainly have been used to better effect — they only kick in for a handful of songs and rely heavily on slide-shows and recycled images. The sound is of the quality you’d expect for the venue, but, as a live band, Nickelback do little to differentiate themselves from their recorded incarnation.

Still, say what you will about Nickelback, they get the job done. They show up, they sing their soft-core hard-rock hearts out, and they don't skimp on the pyro.

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