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Artist Thu Jul 16 2009
Cheap Trick Returning to Relevancy?
Cheap Trick, the best band ever to come out of Rockford, seems to be everywhere lately. That's at least partly thanks to their decision to release their latest album, The Latest, as a limted edition 8-track tape -- simultaneously one-upping all the hipsters on the obscure media tip and making '77 Monte Carlo owners really happy.
But that's just part of the picture. Cheap Trick wrote the theme music for "The Colbert Report." The band is on tour with Def Leppard and Poison this summer (playing tomorrow night at whatever they call that amphitheater in Tinley Park these days -- tickets still available!) and drummer Bun E. Carlos is part of the unlikely supergroup Tinted Windows. And Cheap Trick will be performing The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band live in Las Vegas this September. Possibly with Barry Manilow. Barry Freaking Manilow.
What are we to make of this resurgence? Is Cheap Trick back, or just cashing in on late Boomer/early Gen-Xer nostalgia? If their interview on Chicago Public Radio's "Eight Forty-Eight" is any indication, it's a little of both. And they're fine with that, if it means continuing to be able to play.
Frank / July 16, 2009 1:11 PM
Don't forget "Surrender" featuring prominently in the opening skit of Conan's first night taking over The Tonight Show. It's pretty amazing, all of a sudden they're everywhere.