November 14, 2021 - Takeaways and Observations from Last Night's Cheap Trick Concert

Last night we went to see Cheap Trick at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC). I'd never seen them before, could only name three songs by them, but they've always had a reputation as a fun show, and we'll take almost any excuse to get out of the house these days. 

Throughout the show, I had a number of realizations, both specific to the band and about concerts in general. Here, in no particular order, are some takeaways:

If you want to see a great show, get seats near the stage. If you want to hear a great show, get seats near the soundboard. Our seats were dead center, row S - pretty good seats as far as seeing the stage. From the first notes, the sound was awful. The guy next to us asked what song they opened with, and we had no idea. Even though I'd never heard the song before, I should have been able to figure out something close to a title to help him out. After about five or six songs, we moved toward the back and everything sounded infinitely better. My non-technical, non-professional opinion thinks it's because the seats toward the front were in a more open space, floor to ceiling in the venue, while the soundboard was under the balcony with less room for the music to dissipate (if that's what I can say the music did). 

I was surprised by how punk this band is. The few songs I could name ("Surrender", "Dream Police", and "I Want You To Want Me") fall under the pop/rock genre, but much of what they played last night had a distinctly more punk feel to it. Except for "The Flame". This song has such an '80s vibe to it that I can't believe it's not from a John Hughes soundtrack.

It was odd that Robin Zander spent the show in an outfit that included a trench coat and a leather captain's hat, yet said literally nothing to the audience until the last song of the set; Rick Nielsen was the mouthpiece for the band for the entire show. It seems to me that if Zander's going to cultivate an image like this (to the point that a woman in the front row wore a similar hat), he would have more of a role as a front man.

If someone is going to have a five neck guitar, it's more impressive if they play more than only the top two.

When a band whose heyday was in the late '70s/'80s says that their 2021 album was number one for a "weak week", take it with a grain of salt; While Rick Nielsen claimed their 2021 In Another World was #1 on the charts, it seems that the album peaked at 142 on the Billboard top 200 chart, and the highest it charted anywhere was #2 on Billboard's Top Tastemaker Albums (I never knew that was a thing). 

See live music. See it wherever you can. See it whenever you can. See whomever you can. I get that COVID is still keeping a lot of folks home, but it was sad to see the place maybe two-thirds full.