Bull Lee comrade Kevin Pope (drums) and I went to see Cheap Trick at the Sunset HOB last night. It was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. I kept thinking all night as the high voltage of the music moved through me, what an incredible art form rock n’ roll is. The sound, the songs, the lights, the performance; it was perfect.Funny story about Cheap Trick, a few years ago a friend from back east mailed me a Rick Neilson signature guitar pick after seeing them play a state fair somewhere in Virginia. I ran out of picks one day, so instead of preserving that pick and heading to a music store for a new supply, I used my Rick Neilson pick until I wore it down. I was sort of bummed out about that. I eventually lost it (probably dropped it on stage). And then, years later (Dec 30, 2007), Kevin and I went to see CT at the Canyon Club in Agoura. We both laughed out loud all night at Neilson, who plays a different guitar on each song. His thing is to throw out hundreds of picks during the course of a show. He doesn’t hold on to one pick for more than 10 seconds it seems. His mic stand is covered with picks and he simultaneously rocks out, grabs and flicks guitar picks all night long. The highlight of the show’s hilarity is when he grabs fistfuls out of a bucket and showers the audience with picks. Needless to say, as it turns out, my original Cheap Trick guitar pick was not much of a collector’s item after all. In ’07 I didn’t get a pick but last night we made sure to stand close and all of us got at least one (I got two).
I was never a Rick Neilson fan as a kid. I thought he was a goofball and the opposite of what a rock star should be. I was always partial to the guys on the front covers (lead singer, Robin Zander and bassist, Tom Petersson) I was “too cool” to get it, I guess. I realize now after finally seeing them live (they’ve been one of my favorite bands since I was in 5th grade, and the song “Surrender” is one of the greatest rock n’ roll masterpieces of all time), that they are all pretty damned cool, but that Rick is equal parts powerhouse songwriter, genius comic, a rock god of a performer on stage and one HELL of a guitar player.
Kurt Cobain often cited Cheap Trick as a major influence. He would say that Nirvana was nothing more than a tribute to Cheap Trick and The Knack in the tradition of a bar band. Of course that isn’t true, but there are similarities. For me, the most obvious one is the song "Auf Wiedersehen", from Heaven Tonight which the band ends their shows with (the final encore). I can feel Cobain in the main riff, vocal melody and the way Robin Zander delivers the song. Even the drums sound like Nirvana on this one. Check it out. I got chills the moment I put that together along with the fact that the final word in the song is “suicide.”
(photos by Kevin Pope)
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