Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century

by Chuck Klosterman

You tell people you’re seeing Creed and Nickelback in concert—on the same night, at roughly the same time, in two different venues—and it suddenly becomes a stunt. Just describing the premise seems schlocky—it’s like Def Leppard playing on three different continents in twenty-four hours, or maybe something David Blaine would attempt if he worked for the FUSE network. The assumption is that this is some type of ironic endurance test, and that no person could possibly enjoy the experience of seeing the most hated (yet popular) rock band of 2001 followed by the most popular (yet hated) rock band of 2012. But this is what I wanted to do: I wanted to see Creed at New York’s intimate Beacon Theatre (performing their 1997 album My Own Prison in its entirety), followed by Nickelback in front of eighteen thousand people at Madison Square Garden. I did not do this because I particularly like or dislike either band. I did it because other people like and dislike them so goddamn much.