Cheap Trick!

 I couldn't have cared less about Cheap Trick until about 2012 or so. Their hits didn't do much for me, I didn't know much about them other than Rick Nielsen wore a crazy hat, Robin Zander wore a crazy hat and Tom Petersson wore a crazy hat, and Bun E Carlos was nuts.

Cheap Trick had a residence at Planet Hollywood or whatever it was called back then playing the Sgt Pepper album. Max and I were looking for something to do and found half-price tickets for the show. What the hell, it would kill off a couple of hours.

Then it happened. This garage band from Rockford, Illinois came out, played the entire Sgt Pepper album in exact order and then did their hits. Goddamn, this is what rock is all about. There's nothing fancy about them, they just come out and as they've done since 1975 or so and rock your socks off. I was hooked on a band I'd ignored for 35 years.

Since then, I've seen Cheap Trick 3 more times, including last night here in Omaha at the sound challenged Orpheum Theater. Cheap Trick aint fancy, no fire, no pyro, no backdrops, no overly self-indulgent crowd banter, it's just straight-ahead kick ass rock n roll. For guys north of 70 years old, they may not move like they used to but they get it done.

Robin Zander is exactly 70 and his voice is still fantastic. Rick Nielsen is 75 and at times moves like it, but his guitar chops are just as cool as ever, Tom Petersson can still keep the bass lines charging like a freight train. Now Cheap Trick has become sort of a family band as Robin Taylor Zander is the bands other guitarist and Daxx Nielsen pounds the drums. It's a family affair.

The show itself started at 8 on the dot, it was over at 9:40 on the dot because these guys insist on helping is old folks get home and to sleep at a decent time. Trust me kids, this will happen to you also as you just wish Springsteen or Phish or Pearl Jam would just fucking stop and day good night already!

The setlist is the same it's been for many moons. The deep cuts, the new stuff, the standards are all there. And like the pros they are, they make you wait for the stuff everybody knows. The last half hour is what a lot of people come for. The Flame, I Want You To Want Me, Dream Police all come in order. Then they leave the stage, old school like, and then come back for Surrender and Good Night. The 5-neck guitar comes out at the end, the jokes about "We're too dumb to quit" and telling you what a great audience you were. It is fucking great.

The crowd is older of course. A lot of them around me sat down during the deep cuts and just listened because if you weren't standing you couldn't see. Once the hits started though back up they came to rock out as much as decrepit old folks like me could (to be fair I stood the entire concert, a great achievement for me).

If you get a chance to see these guys, by all means do it. It's an hour and forty minutes of fun fun fun. And you'll be home by 10.