The Grouchy Gaijin's Thoughts on Music and Such

I first heard about Cheap Trick when I was in the 7th grade.  A friend of mine had the original LP "Live at the Budokan" The hit single was "I want You to Want Me".  In 7th grade I don't remember if I really understood what that meant, but I did understand that the album was really good.

To this day "Live at the Budokan" is one of my favorite albums; I learned to play drums copying Bun E. Carlos - I think his solo in their cover of "Ain't That A Shame" is a work of art.  To quote Rick Nielsen "He looks like a total square, but plays drums like a demon."  Personally, of all the great drummers in Rock music, numbers one and two are Charlie Watts and Bun E. Carlos. (Sorry Zeppelin fans)

I saw Cheap Trick two times.  The first time was on the Dream Police tour.  My sister won tickets to see Cheap Trick at the old Olympia Hockey Arena in Detroit.  She was kind enough to give me the tickets.  Her husband and I (I think I was maybe 15 at the time) went, I was blown away.  The show was non-stop energy with Rick spazzing  his way around the stage, Tom and Robin acting like run of the mill Rock stars and Bun E. thundering away

Flash forward to 1999 the Star Plaza theater in Merrillville Indiana.  Cheap Trick plays a show in a theater that seats maybe 3000 people - only a small number of 300 or so people showed up.  To their credit they played with the same heart and energy as if 20,000 people had been there.  At one point in the show, a little kid near the stage was trying to get Rick's autograph.  Rick saw him and ran back stage to get an autographed photo of the band.  He gave the photo to someone right next to the stage and then said, "Give it to that kid man - It's for him"  I was moved.

If you are not familiar with Cheap Trick I highly recommend "Live at the Budokan: The Complete Concert" There really is not a bad song on the album. Although Surrender, I Want You to Want Me and Ain't That A Shame are my personal favorites songs that didn't make the original album such as ELO Kiddies and California Man are quite good.

This album is a classic 5 out of 5 scowls.

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