A “major Canadian concert act” is scheduled to perform at next month’s NHL FaceOff in Winnipeg. Who could it be? The Barenaked Ladies? (The Barenaked Ladies are triple platinum. Are you?) Maybe Sarah McLachlan will show up with an eight-minute ballad about “shelter” and a crate full of one-eyed kittens. Whatever they come up with, it couldn’t be worse than the NFL bringing in Kid Rock, Maroon 5 and Lady Antebellum to christen the new NFL season, right? Right?
Before you assume the people in charge of professional sports don’t want us to kill ourselves, consider that the band could be Nickelback.
Thankfully, the people of Winnipeg (and all good people in this world) are fighting back — by way of Deadspin (+1) comes an open letter published a few days ago in the Winnipeg Free Press urging the NHL to not ruin the Jets’ return to Winnipeg with a concerto from Chad Kroeger And His Stooges.
As people who love music and love Winnipeg even more, we have a request: Please ensure this does not happen. The return of the NHL to Winnipeg is something we have been dreaming about for 15 years. Please do not sully the celebration with the presence of a band whose existence is antithetical to the very concept of celebration.
Please, Person In Charge Of Booking This Event, do not bring Nickelback to Winnipeg that weekend. They can play the arena to their own fans — of which there are many — any time. But a free public performance? That would be tantamount to spitting on Bobby Hull’s toupee, burning Dale Hawerchuk’s jersey, leaving something wet on Thomas Steen’s city council seat or tripping Teemu Selanne on the ice during his final season in the NHL.
Strong words, but strong words are necessary to preserve the morale of a sport going through three player suicides since May. You may want to type, “come on, Nickeback isn’t that bad, they’re just a rock band, if you don’t like them you don’t have to listen”. Want to know why professional wrestling has such a problem with premature deaths? It probably has something to do with this:
I would rather somebody put landmines in the MTS Centre.
I have never actually met somebody who legitimately likes Nickelback. These fans just can’t exist. I know big Linkin Park fans, non-ironic male Maroon 5 fans, I’ve even met some Juggalos. But I refuse to believe that there are people who actually listen to and enjoy Nickelback.
I know a few Nickelback fans, but I live in Florida, so that’s like saying I know a few old Jewish people.
Oh man, I didn’t even know that crappy song WAS Nickelback. Thanks for somehow making a bad song much, much worse.
We hate these guys too.
@Canada: That’s like Germans saying they hate Hitler. Too little, too late.
I’m from Alberta, minutes away from where these douches first formed, and I have not met a Nickleback fan around here since 2001 when the band first gained improbable popularity.
They should be replaced at this event by the Tragically Hip. They are still hip right? Tragically so?
I had no idea the theme song from RAW was by Nickleback. That makes SOOOO much more sense, now.
Nickelback is a pop-rock confection not worth the hate when there are bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Skillet and the recent “punk” bands out there who are far more deserving.
Rush is Canadian, have had Nickelback’s career 5 times over, and are better looking, but the NHL probably couldn’t afford them.
LMAO @ you 10 people. If they asked all the fans to post, there would be 100 posts in 1 minute. The band belts out hits faster then you all can smoke a joint. Their albums go platinum in every country they are sold in. What now, 3-4 records in a row? And they are far from done … AFter 10 straight Platinum albums you will all still be saying the same b.s. according to your closeminded way of living. Cheers to all you pinheads. You all sound better with something in your mouths !!!
My friend used to play their Saturday song…I think he did it just to piss me off and it did. Oh and the only person I met that openly admitted to liking them was the 48 year old groupie at my recording studio that didn’t know a microphone from a kick drum after being there for 9 months. Oh and guy at the bottom…The reason there are so many nickleback fans is that the majority of people are in fact dumbasses. (Wrestlings makes millions too doesn’t mean it’s inherently artistic or talented.) By the way Limp Bizkit, Ashlee Simpson, Creed and the Baha Men all went platinum. So I guess that means they’re all ridiculously good too.
can’t believe the RAW theme is nickelback….disgusting.