July 29th 2009 is a night I, for one will never forget, this concert tour started hot with Saving Abel www.savingabel.com, and let me tell you these guys from Corinth, Mississippi sure the hell know how to start a show, lead singer Jared Weeks along with guitarist Jason Null, guitarist Scott Bartlett, bassist Eric Taylor and drummer Blake Dixon stormed the stage just like the storm that had just passed the pavilion, with “New Tattoo” jumping up and down, banging their heads and fists in the air and loving every minute with all of the 15,000 plus fans in attendance.
Jared and the other members of Saving Abel have such an awesome presence on the stage and can belt out some very cool, yet awesome tunes from Jared’s unmistakable voice, and both guitarists Jason and Scott can definitely 
shred some major wood on the guitars. My personal favorite was the guitar they had decked out in the American Flag, and how appropriate for being so close to the nation’s capital, and drummer Blake can definitely pound the depths of your heart with his talent on the drums. After “New Tattoo”, they took a moment to stop and say THANK YOU to anyone that knew someone or even served in the military before and they wanted to especially Thank all of the troops overseas that made it possible for people like them, as well as all in attendance to be able to be at the show tonight, to which they dedicated “18 Days” to all the troops.
Their set was short, and it’s very unfortunate, as I think they should have played “Addicted” to which I know the crowd would have absolutely went wild for, they did however finish their set up with “Drowning (Face Down)” which was as awesome in person as it is on the radio and in their video. They are very much into their fans, and it looked like the 
fans appreciated them being there just as much as I know Saving Abel felt like being there to which they said Good Bye and Thank You Bristow, We Love You.
Next up was Papa Roach www.paparoach.com , with vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, bassist Tobin Esperance, guitarist Jerry Horton and Drummer Tony Palermo who pounced on stage like lions attacking their prey, saying, How are you Virginia we are here to ROCK your f***ing world tonight! That was definitely the understatement of the night. They played such hard rocking songs like “Last Resort”, “Forever” , “I Almost Told You That I Love You”, then came the ever popular “Lifeline” to which Jacoby had the fans sing the chorus all on their own. They played “To Be Loved”, where Jacoby actually stepped off the stage and went into the crowd looking at all the fresh meat that stood before him and like the King of the Jungle, stood in the middle of the crowd, pumping his fists in the air, allowing the crowd to get oh so up close and personal with him, which was a classy act if you want my opinion, as not very many bands these days let the fans interact as much as he did, and I know after 
that song the crowd felt as if they needed an actual “Lifeline” as they had been rocked so hard already they probably felt as if they needed more; which Papa Roach happily gave them by playing one of their newest hard rocking raunchy hits “Hollywood Whore” that I am sure will become an instant classic if it gets more radio play, this song is definitely as raunchy, yet hard core as Papa Roach knows how to be.
Between the slamming bass of Tobin Esperance and the skillful blistering shreds of Jerry Horton as well as the ear drum bleeding pounds of Tony Palermo and the steaming, yet skillful pipes of Jacoby, this band definitely delivered on their promise of ROCKING the crowd’s world.
Next up was Hinder www.hindermusic.com, with vocalist Austin Winkler, Joe “Blower” Garvey on guitar, guitarist Mark King, bassist Mike Rodden and drummer Cody Hansen, brought back the “Good Ole Days” of Rock and Roll with such mega hits “Better Than Me”, the flick your bic ballad 
“Lips of an Angel”, “Without You” and the fist pumping, crowd surfing, “Up All Night” to which Austin also stepped off stage towards the middle of the Pavilion, standing on the rails admiring all the fans pumping their fists, waving their hands so hard he stopped for a second and said “This is why we do this Shit.”
Austin’s gravelly voice sounds so melodic at times, but he can definitely make you want to hear more of it, and with the way this band is playing right now I honestly can’t see why they “Are Hoping to be the band to get people into rock again” per drummer Cody Hansen cause if you ask me and I would dare to say the 15,000 plus fans in attendance tonight this whole tour should get people into rock again.
Last and certainly not least was the headliner: Nickelback, www.nickelback.com. 
I was pretty much blown away by how this whole night went up until these guys hit the stage and then it was like a missile had been shot out the pavilion as thunderous booms and flames hit the stage to which lead vocals Chad Kroeger, started the set with “Something In Your Mouth” from their “Dark Horse” Album with Mike Kroeger on bass, Ryan Peake on guitar and drummer Daniel Adair pounding out this song so hard it should have been felt by everyone.
There was a brief, yet very funny intermission after “Something in Your Mouth” where Chad entertained the crowd by jesting with a 15 year old guy in the front row that had the crowd rolling with laughter trying to get the guy a date for the evening and saying “This should be the best night of your life”.
After the intermission, they rolled into “Because of You” and then my personal favorite “Photograph”, with images of the all the members of the band blasting on the monitors behind them, showing a little into the bands past and present times with their friends and family.
They also sang, “Far Away”, “Gotta Be Somebody”, “If Today Was Your Last Day”, & 
“Rockstar”, to which Chad joked with the crowd saying maybe he should quit the band tonight and have everyone come on stage to be a “Rockstar” just for one night, among many more from not only the “All the Right Reasons” album but as well from their new “Darkhorse” album.
About midpoint of the show they brought out Austin Winkler, and Jacoby Shaddix to do a very sweet and awesome rendition of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, which just absolutely sounded like you were at an AC/DC concert and had the crowd singing along the entire time.
Chad, Mike, Ryan, and Daniel decided to also treat the crowd to an acoustic version of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places”, which surprisingly sounded very good.
To show how much they appreciated all the fans in attendance, they had a stagehand dole out about 25 backstage passes for what they called an “After Party”, to which I am sure the way this show was going so far for anyone that got the honor of those passes will truly remember for a long time to come, as well as they had 4 stagehands from back stage come out and shoot t-shirts and throw beer out into the crowd to share in their appreciation to the fans.
Nickelback interacts beautifully with their fans, and shows they are there to give them one HELL of a Rock show and definitely delivered not only in the beginning with their awesome lights and pyrotechnics, fireworks and flame show, but they also took the time to give Daniel Adair a chance to absolutely floor the crowd with his own drum solo, and let me tell you, this guy has got some MAJOR SKILLS on his DM drum set. When the lights went out and all you could see was this bright light shining on the drums it was like magic. Daniel stepped up to his drum set that raised some 15 to 20 plus feet above the crowd 
and rotated 180 degrees. He went into an almost 10 to 15 minute brain busting, heart pounding out of your chest, out of this world, hard core drum solo that would have absolutely destroyed the roof off of the Nation’s Capitol as well as shatter anything that you would think was impenetrable in the world. It was just amazing the skills this guy has that he must have definitely sacrificed quite a few trees for drumsticks in his lifetime thus far.
To end the show, Nickelback came back on stage to say Thank You one last time to all these “crazy animals” as they called them, to which they rolled right into “Animals”, and like a pack of animals, the crowd jumped up and down waving their devil horns to the sky, did some crowd surfing, and continued banging their heads and pumping their fists as they had all night long.
And then they said “This is how Nickelback says Thank You, We Love You and Good Night” with their pyrotechnics, flames, and fireworks, ending their over 2 hour show.
After the show, I had the chance to talk to quite a few members of the audience that attended the show, and spoke to Bill Lambert and Kathy Richardson from Frederick, Maryland who actually showed her “Boobies” as she called them. Donna Milano and Gene Boyd also from Frederick, Maryland who said it was one of the best shows they had been to. They loved all of the interaction that each band gave to the fans, and next time they would make sure they would bring more “Boobies” from “Cheryl’s Court” to enjoy one of the best concerts they had the pleasure of attending.
This is the “MUST SEE” concert of the Year in my honest opinion and even if you don’t spend the small amount of money to get the “Premium Seats” you will be treated to one of the GREATEST, GOOD OLE DAYS, ROCK AND ROLL SHOW.
