Saw Cheap Trick at the glamorous Kentucky State Fair tonight. It was a free show, but of course, one had to pay to get into the fair itself and pay for parking. However, since I am a well-connected media mogul, I paid exactly nothing to see the show, so I couldn't lose.
If memory serves, this was the sixth time I've seen Cheap Trick live and they always put on a good show. I've liked Cheap Trick since I was around 10 or 11 years old, but naturally, I went through a phase right around the time I started high school where I fronted like I was too cool to like the music I enjoyed as a youngster, Cheap Trick included. Amusingly enough, I probably listen to Cheap Trick much more often these days than I do most of the hip stuff I liked in high school (R.E.M., I'm looking in your direction).
So anyhoo, the Tricksters played a good selection of songs, even if the 70-minute set seemed a little brief. The best Cheap Trick gig I ever saw was probably in 2000 at Headliners right here in Louisville, but before we moved here. (We actually got lost trying to find I-64 thanks to Mapquest, but that's a story for another time...).
Set list:
Hello There
Big Eyes
If You Want My Love
Southern Girls
Best Friend
I Want You to Want Me
I Know What I Want
Voices
Never Had a Lot to Lose
The Flame
In the Street (a.k.a. That '70s Song)*
Surrender
Dream Police
Goodnight
*This is a cover of a Big Star song that serves as the theme to That '70s Show, heavily edited and in my opinion, somewhat ruined. While my judgment is somewhat clouded by the fact that 1) That '70s Show is a pretty wretched sitcom and 2) you cannot improve on Big Star, ever, I still don't care for this tune. It's not easy having standards as exacting as mine...
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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats." --H.L. Mencken
3 comments:
Love Cheap Trick — which by the way YOU turned me on to. I mean, I always liked a few of their "hits" okay back in the day but you are the one that got me hooked on their first album and "In Color." I've seen them several times too. The last time was last year when they opened for Aerosmith here in Evansville. I was reviewing the concert, so I didn't have to pay to see fat girls flashing their titties at Steven Tyler.
Anyway, Cheap Trick kicked ass but the audience totally didn't get it. Kind of sad.
Remember the time we saw them at Roberts Stadium with Joan Jett opening? That had to have been one of the loudest, shittiest concerts I've seen. It was like the band was pissed off or something. Zander just stood there with his sunglasses on most of the time and you couldn't even come close to making out the words because the sound was so loud.
Hell yes, I remember that gig. It was the first time I saw Cheap Trick and they were touring on the back of "The Flame," which was their only #1 single. The complete bill: House of Lords, Joan Jett and the Tricksters. I rememebr enjoying the show ...and that's about it.
I saw them open for Stone Temple Pilots at Roberts Stadium in 1997 (I think) and the audience was also pretty inattentive, but to be fair, most of them came to see STP. Of course, we left after Cheap Trick finished.
Apparently one of Elliott Smith's final recorded tracks is a cover of Big Star's "Thirteen," which seems as perfect an artist/cover combination as there can be. It's supposed to be on the Thumbsucker soundtrack. I'm placing bets now on it winning the Dazed and Confused Award for Soundtracking Making More Money That the Movie's Box Office award.
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