CDUBB, how was cheap trick?

[shotgun naked]

.

[bmanpoo]

if cdubb is Axel, this is what he thought...

Axel Says:

Maybe i missed something. They were fucking awful! Their guitar “solos” were just horrid. Reminded me of Steely Dan @ petty last year at the sprint center. Just give it up dudes! Put out another greatest hits album and collect the check. While i respect their tunes, this was more suited for a state fair crowd. $40+ to see that shit?! Had i paid for the tickets i would not have been happy.

[CDUBB]

Didn't go.

[lawgeek]

Didn't go.

And by "didn't go," he means he was shirtless and in the front row, massaging his nipples throughout "I Want You To Want Me."

[CDUBB]

And by "didn't go," he means he was shirtless and in the front row, massaging his nipples throughout "I Want You To Want Me."

It was 3rd row....but yeah.

[Hot Carl]

i went. they were okay at best. robin zander still sounds pretty good and rick nielson was his usual funny self. tom peterson looks like he's got the AIDS. his patented 12 string bass probably weighed more than he does. bun e carlos was rock solid. tunes just sounded tired until they played surrender and dream police during the encores. i've been to better shows and i've been to worse.

looked for fiber after the show in the high limit room but not sure if i saw him. that place was absolutely crawling with shovel-faced whoors.

[pellz]

if cdubb is Axel, this is what he thought...

Axel Says:

Maybe i missed something. They were fucking awful! Their guitar “solos” were just horrid. Reminded me of Steely Dan @ petty last year at the sprint center. Just give it up dudes! Put out another greatest hits album and collect the check. While i respect their tunes, this was more suited for a state fair crowd. $40+ to see that shit?! Had i paid for the tickets i would not have been happy.

Shit, I'm pissed that I missed Steely Dan opening for Petty last year.

[Hot Carl]

review from McTavish:

Cheap Trick was on stage for only an hour before blazing through its signature rocker, “Surrender,” and then saying so long to the near capacity crowd that had come to celebrate the masters of power pop on Friday at Ameristar Casino.
“Good night! We’re Cheap Trick!” shouted lead singer Robin Zander, who hadn’t said a word up to that point.
Not that he needed to talk while sharing the stage with uber-chatty guitarist Rick Nielsen, whose between-song patter offered at least as much amusement as his amazing array of axes delivered melodious mayhem – including one fashioned in his own image and another with five necks.
I did overhear a fan or two seriously question the less-than-marathon length of the set – although that was prior to an entertaining encore highlighted by the slam-dunk Beatles fix of “Dream Police” and the frenetically apropos closer, “Goodnight Now.”
As for me, not quite 80 minutes of good rocking was plenty. But I’m never less than delighted by even a little Cheap Trick.
A deceptively sweet female voice that introduced the band hit the right note: “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Please welcome to the stage the best fucking rock band you’ve ever seen – Cheap Trick!”
To back up the brag – if that’s what it was – original band members Zander, Nielson, bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos merely needed to jell as they’ve done thousands of times since 1975 with an ideal mix of personal playfulness and musical authority steeped in rock ’n’ roll fundamentals.
And would you believe they still looked cool and relatively non-ancient doing it?
Zander has managed to keep his long hair, and the tight black leather pants he was wearing looked like those that fit him 35 years ago. Hey, they might even be the same pair.
Nielsen wore his trademark ball cap and spent most of his time mugging for the crowd. He tossed out handfuls of guitar picks and loped from one end of the stage to the other, all the while performing like an ace. He frequently patted his heart as if he couldn’t control its beat and kiddingly blew on his guitar-playing fingers to cool them off. At least I think he was kidding.
Certainly, there was no overlooking the lasting vitality of the product, starting with the classic combination punch of “Way of the World,” “Come On, Come On” and “California Man.” As impressively as the band rocked, Nielsen couldn’t resist poking fun at its own legend. He told the crowd to accept no substitutes.
“We are the real Cheap Trick,” Nielsen said. “We are the real stuff. The mistakes are real.”
The band played songs from its current album, “The Latest,” including the tender ballad, “Miracle,” whose John Lennon-like lilt would have been right at home on the album that the Beatles made between “Magical Mystery Tour” and “The White Album”…except no such disc exists. Thanks for filling in for history, guys!
Holding an obsolete eight-track tape aloft as a prop, Nielsen hailed“The Latest” as the “No. 1 selling 8-track in the world.”
“We’re not sure what No. 2 is,” he said. “For me to play it, I had to buy a 1978 Lincoln Continental.”
Nielsen introduced “Sick Man of Europe,” another selection from “The Latest” that frankly sounded like a throwaway, this way: “Here’s a song that every garage band should play. It’s fun, it’s over in a hurry and it’s loud. And I’ll come to your house and play it for you. You all live together, right?”
The elemental feel-good oldies (whatever the current playback format) also kept coming, including the bubblegum whiplash of “I Want You to Want Me,” the Elvisian quiver of “Baby Loves to Rock,” the serpentine promise and Pink Floyd-ish guitar line of “Heaven Tonight,” the wonderful falsetto soar of “If You Want My Love” and the band’s 1988 comeback smash, “The Flame,” which allowed Zander’s incredibly intact vocal abilties to sizzle in the power ballad spotlight.
Nielsen also kept the comedy fire burning, as when he praised Petersson, who looked dapper in what could have passed for a double-breasted Nehru jacket, for inventing and pioneering the use of the 12-string bass.
“So many people were influenced by him,” Nielsen said. “When Tom quit drinking, I did, too.”
Later Nielsen cracked: “I’m full of crap. You can’t tell when I’m telling the truth, can you?”
Maybe not, but no band outrocks Cheap Trick. And that’s the truth.