OTTAWA - Rockers Nickelback might be a favourite target of critics, but for the 17,200 fans who packed Scotiabank Place on Sunday night, their massive display of solidarity sent a message to all the pop-culture trendoids who say it’s cool to run the band down.

Get over it.

At The Bank it was nothing but a massive Nickelback group hug as a near-record crowd of fans who don’t care how sexist, stupid or emotionally arrested Nickelback’s music is, indulged their taste for songs about getting wasted or porn actresses in one predictably nasty, dirty, and horribly predictable rock show.

After opening sets with Sick Puppies, Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown, the boys kicked their Dark Horse show off after a round of explosives, with Burn It to the Ground and Flat on the Floor .

Photograph came with lots of pictures of the band beginning way back when in hometown Hanna, Alta. and going throughout their career, including shots of the capital and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Not surprisingly, the band — Guitarist Chad and bassist Mike Kroeger, with guitarist Ryan Peake and Daniel Adair on drums — was loud and in top playing shape, though frontman Chad Kroeger was graciously subdued early in the show until he rallied, screaming comments I can’t repeat here but meant to ramp up the testosterone for Savin’ Me, a cover of Guns N’ Roses’ Patience, their current hit Something in Your Mouth, Far Away, This Afternoon and the crowd-pleaser Rockstar.

Indeed, Chad Kroeger had so recovered his normal prickly personality that by mid-show, he was too busy talking about how great it is to be a horny, hockey-playing Canadian, to play.

Instead, he brought out a couple of Daniel Alfredsson fans toting those bazookas they shoot submarine sandwiches with at hockey games, challenging them to “bust a move” before executing their mission, to shoot stuff at the fans. It was like being at a Senators game.

Eventually, Nickelback got back to business, including a dazzling drum solo by Adair — with the kit hydraulically rising into the air, and a thundering take of If Today Was Your Last Day and Someday.

Nickelback are strong performers, but their show does tend to become monotonous with all their rock cliches. Still, it’s in-yer-face enough to get your blood boiling.

And if you don’t like it, here’s your nickel back.

denis.armstrong@sunmedia.ca