Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

Review by King Lizzard
Since I wasn’t able to find any reviews on the recent Cheap Trick, Heart, Journey summer 2008 tour I decided it was time to break out the old laptop onto the kitchen table and write one myself whilst sipping my morning java.

I’ve been a big fan of all three bands and even opened for Cheap Trick and Heart back in circa 1981. Aside from the fact that I got lost (the roads winding around Mandalay Bay are verrry tricky) and then got hung up in nightmarish traffic we made it to our seat just as Cheap Trick hit the stage. There was a point when I said if I was still sitting in traffic come 8PM I would say fuck it and go home.

Cheap Trick has the same line-up they had 30 years ago and, believe it or not, still look and sound the same, opening with “Hello,”

Bun E. Carlos, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson

 ending with “Goodbye” and encoring with “Dream Police.” They hit “Surrender,” “I Want You To Want Me,” “Big Eyes,” “California Man,” and a few others. Their set was about 45 minutes. The sadness that fills my heart is the mixing was so profoundly awful you really couldn’t tell what they were playing most of the time. I absolutely love these guys, I’ve opened for them and have seen them live about ten times, but the sound mix was horrible… Combined with the lights which were facing into the audience most of the set you could neither watch nor hear Cheap Trick.

Next came Heart, which I’ve had a crush on Nancy Wilson since 1980 (if only she wasn’t married to Cameron Crowe…and I was rich and famous as well) Ann may be pushing 60 but she still has a voice that can bring down the ceiling in any arena. Their mixing was better, although Ann’s voice was a little overpowering at times, and the damned lights still kept blinding us. Fortunately they had big screens placed throughout the venue which projected the concert in TV production slickness, including fades, double images, dissolves and montages. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Ann Wilson, Arnel Pineda, audience, big eyes, Bun E. Carlos, california man, Cameron Crowe, cheap trick, dream police, Fuck, Heart, Jonathon Cain, journey, King-Lizzard, kitchen table, Las-Vegas, Manadalay Bay, Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, nancy wilson, Neal Scon, old laptop, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Ross Valory, sadness, screens, tom petersson, venue
Posted in Entertainment, Music Reviews | 7 Comments »