Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Cheap Trick play at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem on Feb. 12
From a press release:
It was announced today that legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Cheap Trick will return to Bethlehem to perform at the Wind Creek Event Center on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.
Tickets, which are $49.50, $59.50, and $69.50, plus applicable fees, go on sale this Friday, Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. and will be available at windcreekeventcenter.com, the Event Center box office (77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem), ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets, and by phone at 800-745-3000. A pre-sale for members of the venue’s Music Insiders Club will take place on Thursday, Dec. 5 from 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
Cheap Trick is part of the very fiber of American music, inspiring and delighting generations with their unique union of massive melodies and razor blade riffs and their own special brand of mischievous wit and maximum rock ‘n’ roll. Frontlined since 1974 by Robin Zander (vocals, rhythm guitar), Rick Nielsen (lead guitar), and Tom Petersson (bass guitar), the Rockford, Illinois-born band is as vital today as ever, having released three spectacular records in two years – “Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello” (2016), “We’re All Alright” (2017), and “Christmas Christmas” (2017) – and toured relentlessly to packed audiences around the world (5,000+ shows in four decades).
Cheap Trick are an indisputable institution, beloved for their instantly identifiable, hugely influential, powerhouse pop rock. The constant core of the band remains one of a kind – three guys, four chords, and tunes that will last in perpetuity, from “He’s a Whore,” “California Man,” and “Dream Police” to “Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me,” and the worldwide No. 1 hit single “The Flame.”
“The songs are why everybody knows Cheap Trick,” drummer Daxx Nielsen says. “We have some good songs. ‘I Want You To Want Me’ has been around for 40 years, but people still love it. And even if you’re sick of it, it’s over in three minutes! The songs are still relevant; they still have the right words and the right emotion to move 99 percent of all humans.”
All three original members cite Nielsen as the most significant contemporary influence on Cheap Trick’s current creativity. A musical polymath who has played with artists spanning Dick Dale to Brandi Carlisle, the younger Nielsen was the obvious choice when the seemingly irreplaceable Bun E. Carlos retired from active touring and recording with the band he co-founded. Daxx’s innate virtuosity and spirited musicianship were propulsive in more ways than the usual, inspiring fresh energy while also keeping the band in touch with its roots.
“Daxx is so talented,” Petersson says. “He’s so into it, he can play all of our songs on any instrument. We’ll pull something from our back catalog and he’ll tell us how the bridge goes.”
“We have to recall stuff,” Rick says. “Daxx remembers.”
2016 saw Cheap Trick’s long-awaited induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction honored both the band and the pioneering sound that has earned them total record sales well in excess of 20 million, featured appearances, and more than 40 international gold and platinum certifications. Cheap Trick closed the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony with a show-stealing performance of “Surrender,” “Dream Police,” and “I Want You to Want Me,” prompting Rolling Stone to say, “Their smoking three-song set [was] played to perfection, with Zander hitting all the notes he hit at Budokan back in 1978.”
2017’s “We’re All Alright” was yet another undisputed triumph for the band, as the album’s first single, “Long Time Coming,” enjoyed an unprecedented run of 18 weeks at No. 1 on the Mediabase Classic Rock chart and received loud applause from the press following its release, with Paste flat out raving, “Having been an active band for more than four decades, Cheap Trick continues to be a model of freakish consistency… Quick, think of any other American rock band formed in ’70s who is still putting out albums in the modern era that not only don’t embarrass the band but repeatedly revitalize their career. The list starts and stops with one name: Cheap Trick. They’re not going anywhere, so you might as well start listening.”
“The energy levels are astounding,” shouted Classic Rock, “with producer Julian Raymond extracting a sonic attack that makes Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson, and Daxx Nielsen sound like they’ve been locked in an industrial hangar with a bunch of AK-47s.”
“If 2016’s terrific ‘Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello’ was a long-awaited comeback after a seven-year lapse, then this year’s rapid follow-up shows that was no anomaly,” declared American Songwriter.
“Few acts inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as Cheap Trick deservedly was in 2016, are cranking out music as fresh, honest, energized, and explosive as these guys have released in the past two years. And if this recent burst in activity keeps going, they will be the poster boys for how aging rock and rollers can stay relevant without selling out or trying to be hip… Long live Cheap Trick.”
“I don’t ever see us quitting,” Zander notes. “We’re not cut out for sitting around and watching TV.”
“This is what we do,” Petersson says. “We’re very proud of this record; we have no problem going around the world playing songs from it. We’re going to do that anyway. That’s what we do.”
“We’re not a nostalgia band,” Nielsen adds. “We never stopped making records, we never stopped touring. We’ve had ups, we’ve had super lows, but we kept at it and I think people appreciate that. Sometimes, I think we’re just too dumb to quit. We just keep going.”
