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Cheap Trick opening for ZZ Top...


gtone

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...and I just got thru purchasing 4 primo tickets for their May '20 stopover here at our local multiplex.  It's a good venue with decent sound and an intimate concert bowl experience which kinda makes up for it being one of the smaller venues on the slate (city pop of 34K, venue seats about 4K in concert bowl config).

 ZZ's doing a 4 city Canadian tour leg with Cheap Trick opening for all dates here and I'm really stoked for this since the announcement earlier this wk. Sure both acts are prolly well past prime, but who cares - they're friggin' legends with a crapload of records sold and that counts for a lot IMO.

Haven't seen the Trick since July '79 in Toronto's old Maple Leaf Gardens, so it's been a while.  And no, I'm not on the floor so will be well out of Rick's pick-chucking range, unfortunately.

 

 

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Cheap Trick is not past their prime.  They never did acrobatics on stage, so the show is all personality driven.  Rick will be Rick.  Tom will be Tom.  Robin can still sing!  They will be more lively than ZZ Top. 

ZZ Top will play all hits with a couple of exceptions.  Billy will talk to the audience.  Everything will be good. 

I saw that pair in October, and to me Cheap Trick was the better of the two just from the way they presented themselves. 

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That "Busted Backstage" pic posted here a couple of months ago was at a solo branch-off gig from their tour w/ the ZZs. Not to be name dropping, but Petersson was exuberant about the way the the lots-of-tone, lots-of-guitars billing was going. Doesn't hurt the Tricksters that the gigs are during ZZ's 50th anniversary annum.

Gibbons turned 70 on Monday...

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Kinda weird seeing acts of this stature in our little town in the middle of nowhere. A surreal moment happened when Alice Cooper appeared here on his world tour.  Right after the first song, he said something like - "Wow, incredible tour. Last stop was London, before that Paris, now MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN!".  We all kinda looked at one another and collectively thought, "I know, right?!"

 

 

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3 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

I've seen Cheap Trick probably a dozen times over the last 20 years and I can say I have only seen Robin talk to the crowd ONE time, at The Fairfax County Fair in like...2002?, where he pulled a kid onstage and he and Rick had the youngster holler out the intro to "California Man". That show was also the best I have ever heard them sound,  mix-wise.

@cmatthes you were at that one hangin' with the band, weren't you?

Edited to recall, for @gtone's comment re: Rick's pic range:  Another CT show I was at in the 90s, also attended by @cmatthes (Bottle & Cork in Dewey?) I was kinda up front standing on the dancefloor about 10 feet from the stage pre-show talking to some guy who had an Ace Frehley pick encased in  locket around his neck. He was explaining to me that it had been a dream come true to catch that pick from "his idol, Ace" the year before. When the band came on I backed up looking for a place in the club with a less bass-heavy mix (never found one) and I felt something in my sockless Vans shoe (it was summer, you know) and discovered my checkerboards had caught one of Rick's checkerboards, the cosmic magnificence of which was not lost on me.  After the show and the lights came up,  I was nursing a Sierra Nevada and watching all the urchins literally crawling around the bar room floor looking for picks, including Ace fan-boi. I walked up to him to show him my prize, and he broke into the most pitiful expression and began pleading to me that it would complete his life if he could possess a guitar pick from "his hero, Rick Nielsen".

Yes, I gave it to him lest he soil my post show reverie or my Tommy Bahama with his pathetic tears of hapless misfortune.

Shoulda made him buy me a beer and then walk away immediately for his false allegiance to either Ace or Rick, however.

I got some killer photos at that Fairfax show.   Agree that the band was really good live during that era.

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4 hours ago, gtone said:

Kinda weird seeing acts of this stature in our little town in the middle of nowhere. A surreal moment happened when Alice Cooper appeared here on his world tour.  Right after the first song, he said something like - "Wow, incredible tour. Last stop was London, before that Paris, now MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN!".  We all kinda looked at one another and collectively thought, "I know, right?!"

 

 

You guys should do it up right, drive into Regina and rent the big generator... 😂
Kidding, I really like Moose Jaw!

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14 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

Cheap Trick is not past their prime.  They never did acrobatics on stage, so the show is all personality driven.  Rick will be Rick.  Tom will be Tom.  Robin can still sing!  They will be more lively than ZZ Top.

I have to disagree somewhat that CT is not past their prime.  Rick DID used to jump around like a lunatic on stage and that doesn't happen anymore (not that I think it should).  Tom is always the same as he ever was, and Robin can definitely sing although if you've ever seen him have an off night, it's REALLY off!  The last time I saw them, Rick played so bad it was like he had been playing for about 6 months.  I'm not ragging - just reporting.  CT is easily one of my favorite bands of all time and I'm in a CT tribute band so I'm not hating on them.

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12 hours ago, gtone said:

Kinda weird seeing acts of this stature in our little town in the middle of nowhere. A surreal moment happened when Alice Cooper appeared here on his world tour.  Right after the first song, he said something like - "Wow, incredible tour. Last stop was London, before that Paris, now MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN!".  We all kinda looked at one another and collectively thought, "I know, right?!"

That’s because bands like Cheap Trick and Alice Cooper are road dogs. They could have given it up decades back and been comfortable in their place in rock history but it’s in their blood to still make music. They are like some of the old blues guys. They will always be playing somewhere. 

 

 

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10 hours ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

That’s because bands like Cheap Trick and Alice Cooper are road dogs. They could have given it up decades back and been comfortable in their place in rock history but it’s in their blood to still make music. They are like some of the old blues guys. They will always be playing somewhere. 

There ya go...reminds me of that T-Model Ford club video, the one with the hoochie-coo dancer climbing all over him.  B)

I don't see Billie Eilish doing a 50th Anniversary tour whenever that 'milestone' happens.  Of course, if that happens, I'll either be really dead, or really old.

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