April 06, 2011

#57. One of the greatest rock bands of all time.  And don’t even try to change my mind.

In early 1977, I was already familiar with Cheap Trick because Rodney on the Roq was playing ELO Kiddies.  I was thrilled to see them on the bill with The Runaways at the Santa Monica Civic on April 1, 1977.  I remember the date because my dad started the day by telling me the concert was canceled.  Well, he may have been a lame jokester, but he was nice enough to take me to the show.  We both loved Cheap Trick that night, I learned a valuable lesson about always catching the opening band, and bought the album soon after.

A few months later, In Color was released and they were opening for KISS at the Forum (the show that was allegedly used for Alive II).  Gene’s hair caught fire that night and Cheap Trick were on fire on stage.  At this point I was madly in love with this band, but it seemed like most of my friends couldn’t get past the name and their look (2 pretty boys/2 not-so-pretty boys, really played up on the early album covers). 

By the time I saw them next, they were headlining arenas on their own courtesy of Heaven Tonight and the surprise hit that was Cheap Trick at Budokan.  My family rung in the year 1978/1979 at the Long Beach Arena with Cheap Trick and a very unenthusiastically received opening set from Nick Gilder.   Dream Police seemed to cement their reputation as a reliable album band and concert draw, and in 1980 I saw them headline the Summer Blowout at the Los Angeles Coliseum (this time with my mom...man I was lucky to have cool parents).

And about this time, the cracks were starting to show. 

Shortly after the Coliseum show, Tom Petersson left the band.  Sometime after that, I saw the painfully ramshackle show with Tom and Terry Reid at Madame Wong’s.  And I didn’t see Cheap Trick again until the series of shows in 1998, well after Tom returned to the band, where they played the entire Budokan show and the first 3 albums in their entirety (all great shows).  

Although they no longer headline arenas, they continue to tour and their shows do not embarrass their legacy.  Robin’s voice is still really strong, Rick still flings more picks than seems humanly possible, and until Bun E recently stepped down from behind the kit, was the original quartet with no superfluous background vocalists or auxiliary musicians. 

And I still get funny comments about being a cheap trick every time I wear their shirt.