July 22, 2004

Cheap Trick


Here's the set list Cheap Trick SHOULD have played last night.

1. Hello There
2. Everything Works If You Let It
3. Voices
4. I Know What I Want
5. I Want You To Want Me
6. Clock Strikes Ten
7. Surrender
8. Dream Police
9. Gonna Raise Hell
10. Ain't That A Shame
11. One On One
12. If You Want My Love
13. Oo La La La
14. She's Tight

But they didn't. From this list, they only played 3. If you know Cheap Trick's music, you'll be able to guess that those 3 were:
I Want You To Want Me,
Surrender, and
Dream Police

So the set list was the first problem. The second was the sound in the Shepherds Bush Empire. It's a small venue, but the sound was crummy. Problem number 3 was the pocket of rude, tall rocker dudes with poorly groomed long hair sprouting out of their bald patches that shoved their way in front of us. It was plainly evident that this was not my kind of crowd when the audience erupted with applause and sang along to every word when the band played The Flame. Barf.

Those traumas aside, Cheap Trick were in fine form. Rick Nielsen played his signature licks on various guitars (though not as many as at last year's Royal Albert Hall Show) including a double necked axe fashioned into a likeness of Rick himself. He bounded around the stage and on and off a platform, all the while flicking hundreds of guitar picks into the audience, one at a time. I got two.

Thom West would have given a thumbs up to the fine beats of Bun E Carlos on the drums. And what's his face still has the same strong voice, able to sound smooth or just-on-the-verge-of-screaming rough. Oh yeah, it's Robin Zander.

All three times I've seen Cheap Trick live, I've come away feeling happy. This foursome have fun on stage. No fancy antics, just pure rock and roll music. I'd love to see them again.