DARIEN — There used to be an art to arena rock. It could be big and dumb, conceptually lofty or irresistibly campy, but it always had one thing in common — a reverence for rock ’n’ roll’s ability to astound and transport, to leave your ears ringing and your mind full of stories to tell your future children.

Over the last decade, only a handful of new bands have exhibited the desire to make music with the grandeur of an arena stage in mind and had the drawing power to pull it off. And Nickelback is one of them. It’s a baffling thing, seeing that this Alberta quartet is the quintessential example of the post-grunge genre—an overwrought, undercooked style that sounds like an emotionally stunted Pearl Jam. If it’s arena rock, then it’s twice removed and stripped of its spectacular soul.

But clearly, the band is doing something right. At Nickelback’s sold-out show Friday night at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, there were 21,000 people who would vehemently disagree with that last paragraph. This concert was as crowded and cacophonous as it gets, full of fans reveling in guitar-fueled bliss, dancing, raising their glasses and throwing up devil horns like it was Ozzy up on stage.

Perhaps the band’s immense popularity comes from its refusal to bend to musical trends, sticking to what it knows with stubborn consistency. In the middle of its set, the quartet covered “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC — a telling choice, because that band is the undisputed king of keeping it real in the hard rock world.

And when Nickelback attacked its own material, it gave the crowd everything it expected, churning through a two-hour set with the swagger of rock stars and the humility of small town natives. Singer Chad Kroeger chatted amiably in between tunes, sharing that the show was the first date of the band’s summer tour, and they were still working out the kinks.

These supposed missteps were far from obvious, however. While the band isn’t going to win any awards for originality, it’s a polished, well-rehearsed group whose only sin is playing it safe. They could even be likable as workaday rockers-turned-stars — if it wasn’t for Kroeger.

As the face and driving artistic force of Nickelback, Kroeger writes songs stuffed with greeting card sentiments and preposterous sexuality, bellowing every word so strenuously, you’ve got to wonder if he has hernia problems.

If it seems like I’m being too harsh on the guy, forgive me. I’ve just witnessed him deliver lines like these:

I like your pants around your feet.”

“How did your eyes get so red/And what the hell is on Joey’s head?”

Sure, Nickelback isn’t the first band with awful lyrics to fill an arena. But its rock star-next-door appeal and obvious debt to dramatic, lyrically driven bands like Live and Pearl Jam means they can’t get by on flash and dazzle.

This show was full of explosions, fireballs, huge guitar and drum sounds, and a loose, freewheeling spirit.

But when the emotional peak is the song “Photograph,” which is about how high school was neat, you’ve got problems.

Concert Review

Nickelback

With Hinder, Papa Roach and Saving Abel on Friday night at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center.