Review Cheap Trick Olympia TheatreCheap Trick at The Olympia Theatre June 15th

Review by Aidan Cuffe
Photos by Paul Reynolds

What a treat, it wasn’t until last minute on Wednesday when I found out someone else couldn’t make it that I ended up with the opportunity to see a band for whom I knew so little of their material but had this unnerving respect for. That band of course was Cheap Trick. You have the iconic Robin Zander, you have the first man to play a 12 string bass guitar in Tom Petersson and the songwriter and swagger in lead guitarist Rick Nielson (leaving out Bun E. Carlos as I believe a session drummer has replaced him for the moment).

This was a chance to see rock legends from the 70s on stage and in person, rock acts these days do still seem so few and far between so when one returns you can’t help but want to catch the show. Joining the stage in a white suit ‘Dream Police’ outfit, kind of akin to a Navy uniform, Robin Zander showed how he wanted to be the centre of attention. They launch into ‘Hello There’ and ‘California Man’ followed by ‘Elo Kiddies’ to kick off the show which quickly got the crowd down the front bopping. This was old school and with every change of song Rick Nielsen appeared to have a different guitar to sport.

Quite confident in their own musical setlist and their audience Cheap Trick rocked out their most well known hit ‘I Want You To Want Me’ only four tracks in, this could be considered a rather ballsy move but it seemed the injection of life the crowd needed as the energy filtered out to the further reaches of the crowds and people of all ages and description couldn’t help but sway a hip and sing vibrantly along. Some reliving their past, others shouting back a permanent feature on the iPod playlists.

As they wound through the tracks like ‘Clock Strikes Ten’ and ‘Tonight It’s You’ we were shown the strength of Rick Nielsens stage presence as he commanded the cheers and silence of the crowd with a wave of his hand, adding a youthful energy and exuberance of a man half his age. Complimenting the Irish weather as beautiful, the women here are beautiful and the men are… well here. The banter and control Rick exudes adds an extra dimension to the band that many up and coming rock bands could learn from.

They brought a young lad up on stage for “Closer” and had him sing a whole verse himself which was nice though I’m not sure if he was a family member or friend as I don’t remember seeing him pulled up however he did well and the crowd loved it before Cheap Trick closed out the show with another fan favourite ‘Surrender’ it was clear this show was a rip roaring success.

The obligatory encore after the usual chanting saw them play ‘Downed’ followed by ‘Dream Police’ and finishing off with Rick on a five head guitar that looked almost too heavy for him to lift but he played the song effortlessly closing out a great show. It’s quite clear Cheap Trick have aged a lot since those early heady days which they built their reputation upon but age however has not hampered them one bit, still as energetic on stage as a YouTube video would show you, jumps for effect on a big strum to finish, flicking plecs into the crowd continuously. Cheap Trick were a band who knew their show, knew their audience and delivered exactly what was expected, a classic old school rock show.

Setlist

  1. Hello There
  2. California Man
  3. Elo Kiddies
  4. I Want You to Want Me
  5. These Days
  6. Clock Strikes Ten
  7. Lookin’ Out For Number One
  8. Tonight It’s You
  9. On Top of the World
  10. Fan Club
  11. The House Is Rockin’
  12. Never Had a Lot to Lose
  13. (Speck) Ballad of TV Violence
  14. Baby Loves To Rock
  15. Sick Man of Europe
  16. Closer
  17. Surrender
  18. Encore:
  19. Downed
  20. Dream Police
  21. Good Night
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