CHEAP TRICK: SILVER (2001)
1) Ain't That A Shame; 2) I
Want You To Want Me; 3) Oh, Candy; 4) That 70's Song; 5) Voices; 6) If You Want
My Love; 7) She's Tight; 8) Can't Stop Fallin' Into Love; 9) Gonna Raise Hell;
10) I Can't Take It; 11) Take Me To The Top; 12) It All Comes Back To You; 13)
Tonight It's You; 14) Time Will Let You Know; 15) World's Greatest Lover; 16)
The Flame; 17) Stop This Game; 18) Dream Police; 19) I Know What I Want; 20)
Woke Up With A Monster; 21) Never Had A Lot To Lose; 22) You're All Talk; 23)
I'm Losin' You; 24) Hard To Tell; 25) Oh, Claire; 26) Surrender; 27) Just Got
Back; 28) Day Tripper; 29) Who D' King; 30*) Daddy Should Have Stayed In High
School; 31*) On Top Of The World.
Two live albums in a row? The easiest thing is
to interpret this as a sign of senility, but, in all fairness, post-Budokan Cheap Trick only really put out
live albums for special occasions — thus, Music
For Hangovers celebrated the re-release of the «classic four», and now, a
year later, comes this posh, almost luxurious celebration of the band's 25th
anniversary, staged by the band in style, as they return to their native town
of Rockford, Illinois (probably the only place in the world where they can
still sell out the largest venue without any problems) and, local
royalty-style, not only surround themselves with a pack of illustrious (and
not-so-illustrious) guests, but also insist on presenting a panoramic view of
the band's entire 25-year old career.
Among other things, this means revisiting every
single Cheap Trick album ever — yes, even including The Doctor and Busted.
With thirteen studio albums behind their belt already, this is not an easy
task, and even given the mammoth duration of the show (almost two and a half
hours), they are unable to tackle all the highlights, especially since they are
so obsessed with completism here, they even perform one song from Robin
Zander's solo career (ʽTime Will Let You Knowʼ), as well as the theme song from
That 70's Show (a reworking of Big
Star's ʽIn The Streetʼ), and two Beatle-related tunes: ʽDay Tripperʼ, which
they sometimes did in concert in the old days, and even Lennon's ʽI'm Losing
Youʼ — a song on which they almost
got to back John back in 1980, even though their version ultimately did not
make it onto the final cut of Double
Fantasy (but you can still hear it on Lennon's Anthology boxset: I like its hard-rocking crunch, but I can also
see how the sound would be considered too harsh and too «retrograde» for John's
New Wave-leaning tastes circa 1980).
The good news: this ensures that Silver is at least not completely
expendable, coming right off the heels of Music
For Hangovers — this is an entirely different concept, and although there
is, inevitably, some overlap with the old numbers, there is a whole ton of live
stuff here that you have never heard before unless you were an avid concert
goer or bootleg collector. (Even in terms of the old Seventies' stuff, you
still have performances of ʽVoicesʼ, ʽI Know What I Wantʼ, ʽYou're All Talkʼ,
and, tacked on as bonus tracks on the 2004 re-release, ʽDaddy Should Have
Stayed In High Schoolʼ and ʽOn Top Of The Worldʼ that were never previously
available live). The bad news: do we really
want to sit through an endless set of reminders of how subpar the band's 1980s
— 1990s material was, compared to the classics? Even if they really go all the
way to weed out the embarrassments and concentrate on the decent stuff, there's
no way you could shove Silver into
somebody's face as an introduction to Cheap Trick. It may be historically truthful
and all, but it just isn't really that
fun.
There does seem to be a certain ideological
point here: it's as if with this release, Nielsen and the boys are trying to
officially legitimize and redeem all of their past. Case in point: having
carefully back-scrutinized The Doctor
and extracted what is almost certainly the best-written song on there (ʽTake Me
To The Topʼ), they perform an exuberant acoustic performance of the tune to a
seemingly enthusiastic audience, upon which a cockily satisfied Nielsen goes,
"now who said The Doctor was a
bad album? Only every critic in the United States, but what do they know?"
Some rather crude revisionism out there, Mr. Nielsen — now go ahead and stun
your listeners with a kick-ass version of ʽMan-U-Lip-U-Latorʼ, I dare you. But
the illusion cannot be held forever even by the band members — at one point
(right after the conclusion of ʽThe Flameʼ, a song that Rick himself never
seemed to have much love for), Nielsen states that "okay, we've had enough
of these ballads", and eventually the band gets back on track with some
real good stuff.
The guest stars do not make that much of a
difference: many are just relatives (like Robin's daughter, Holland, and Rick's
son, Miles), some are old friends and colleagues (Petersson's former
replacement on the bass, Jon Brant, makes a guest appearance on two of the
songs he originally played on), and then there's the ever-present Billy Corgan
(ʽJust Got Backʼ) and Art Alexakis of Everclear (ʽDay Tripperʼ). The biggest
star of 'em all is Slash, who gives a dutifully ecstatic solo turn on ʽYou're
All Talkʼ, but I am not sure that Cheap Trick done Guns'n'Roses style is a
particularly thrilling idea — serious generational gap out there. Now if only
they could get Angus Young, we'd be talking! But it's a long way from Australia
to Illinois.
Other than that, what is there to say? The band
remains in very good form (ʽGonna Raise Hellʼ is especially diagnostic for all
members of the band, from vocals and guitar to bass and drums, and here they
pass the test with flying colors), Nielsen's sense of humor is intact, and,
after all, it does make sense to give those subpar songs an extra chance when
they are separated from crummy Eighties' production and transferred to a
healthy live environment (also, despite the hoarse overtones, Nielsen turns in
an impressive vocal performance on ʽWorld's Greatest Loverʼ). There is also a
DVD release of the concert, but I'm not sure if you should go for this — Nielsen
was still in his ridiculous braided beard and dark glasses stage at the time,
and it just don't work that well without the bowtie and baseball cap delivery
body image. If it ain't broke, don't fix it — good title for a potential Cheap
Trick hit, by the way.
I was in middle school when this concert at Davis Park happened. It's a grass lawn with a half constructed building behind it in downtown Rockford that has space for a few thousand people. Cheap Trick has indeed always packed the house when they play in Rockford, but you still won't even hear most of the "Hometown Heroes'" 80s or later stuff on the radio (except maybe The Flame). I wish I had more to say, but as a kid Surrender annoyed me, especially hearing it all the time. Adult me now wishes kid me had had better taste and gone to this concert.
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