You can’t blame Cheap Trick for wanting to celebrate their 25th
anniversary by holding one whiz-bang of a concert in their hometown
of Rockford, Illinois. You can’t blame them for wanting to blow the
roof off of the place (never mind the fact the show was held in a
park) with a gaggle of special guests. You can’t blame them for
wanting to touch base with every studio album they’ve done.
You can, however, blame Rick Nielsen and crew for being
overambitious – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But as the
two-disc set
Silver shows, sometimes even a band as great as Cheap Trick
can set the bar a little too high.
Now, for all of the bloat one could say such a release could
have, I will concede some major points. First, I have no problem
with Nielsen and crew bringing in well-known names to sit in with
the band on a song here and there. It’s nice to hear Billy Corgan,
after contributing guitar on “Just Got Back,” pay impromptu tribute
to a band who have not gotten the attention they’ve deserved in
recent years. Likewise, it’s kind of fun to hear Nielsen comment
about Corgan and Slash (who adds guitar to “You’re All Talk”), “The
kid can play!”
Another nice touch is that Cheap Trick welcomed back bassist Jon
Brant, who joined the band after Tom Petersson left for a while, as
well as keyboardist Tod Howarth. It seemed fitting to bring closure
to that period of the band’s career.
What is a little harder to deal with, though understood why
Cheap Trick did it, was to invite their kids to perform on a few
numbers with them. These turned out to be a little more awkward,
though Holland Zander does shine on “Time Will Let You Know”.
As for featuring every studio album – well, the vote is still
out on this. If you’re a die-hard fan of Cheap Trick, this set list
had to top the series of concerts the band played where they
reprised their first four albums in their entirety. For the casual
fan, it often feels like a bit of overkill, especially on the
acoustic set, when the energy level is dragged down to
semi-consciousness.
All of this said,
Silver might just raise some listeners’ interest in a few of
the forgotten Cheap Trick releases. The two selections from
Dream Police, “Gonna Raise Hell” and “Dream Police,” are
kinda fun to listen to – but where was “Way Of The World”? And I’m
probably the only person in the civilized world who, when I bought
it, liked
Woke Up With A Monster. Maybe the inclusion of the title
track will stir up some interest in this one.
Silver, as a two-disc set, is a definite thank-you gift for
Cheap Trick’s dedicated fans, who will undoubtedly lap up every
single note. The fact is, though, that the band could have cut this
down to a single disc and it would have been a tighter release.
(See
Music For Hangovers as proof.) Still, not a bad effort – and
not a bad way to celebrate 25 years together.
