Nickelback saddles up for 2009 North American tour

Nickelback has announced the dates and venues for a North American tour that will begin on February 25th in Nashville, Tennessee, hitting over 30 cities before winding down in late April. Support on the trek will come from Seether and Saving Abel. Nickelback is going out in support of its new album, Dark Horse, which arrived in stores on November 18th. Bassist Mike Kroeger told us that with old and new fans to please, Nickelback has to put together a killer set list: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "I guess the show's just gonna get longer, isn't it? I think that's probably the first thing we're gonna have to do, is stretch out the set a little bit longer. But it does start to become difficult to balance the early fans, you know, and what they wanna hear, some of the old tunes and stuff, versus the newer fans that are only sort of familiar with the last record or this record. It is a little bit of a balancing act, but I think we've done a pretty good job so far. People usually leave our concerts pretty happy."

Tickets for many of the shows on the tour go on sale on December 5th through LiveNation.com, with additional shows available on the 13th.

Fan club members will get early access to tickets through NickelbackFanClub.com beginning this Friday (November 28th).

According to industry tracking site Hits Daily Double, Nickelback's Dark Horse was likely to sell between 300,000 and 330,000 copies in its first week of release. That should land the CD at Number Two on this week's Billboard album chart, behind the new record from Beyonce. Complete sales figures were due to be released on Wednesday (November 26th).

Confirmed Nickelback tour dates (subject to change):
February 25 - Nashville, TN - Sommet Center
February 27 - Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena
February 28 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena
March 2 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
March 3 - Hamilton, ON - Copps Coliseum
March 5 - Worcester, MA - DSU Center
March 6 - East Rutherford, NJ - IZOD Center
March 8 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
March 9 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center
March 11 - Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena
March 12 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena
March 14 - Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center
March 15 - Moline, IL - i Wireless Center
March 17 - Omaha, NE - Qwest Center
March 18 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena
April 1 - Edmonton, AL - Rexall Centre
April 2 - Calgary, AL - Pengrowth Saddledome
April 4 - Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Centre
April 5 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre
April 7 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center
April 8 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
April 10 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center
April 13 - Bossier City, LA - CenturyTel Center
April 14 - San Antonio, TX - AT&T Center
April 16 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center
April 17 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Arena
April 19 - Little Rock, AR - Alltel Arena
April 22 - Jacksonville, FL - Veterans Memorial Arena
April 23 - Columbia, SC - Colonial Life Arena

(Special thanks to Hollywood Hamilton's Weekend Top 30)