music reviews

Review of live perfomance - Cheap Trick at The Egg, Albany, N.Y. - April 22, 2003- by Peter Gernert-Dott

I just got back from the Cheap Trick show in Albany. Seats: mid-way up and in the middle..great view of the band including Bun E Carlos sitting at stage level all the way in the back...plays like a machine and a bit more animated than he was at Foxwoods.

The playlist was EXACTLY the same as the first show...no complaints of course. The big difference was that the volume was easily twice what it was at Foxwoods. They were just blasting away. All the classics (I want you..., surrender, dream police, ain't that a shame) along with some very oldies and the three new ones. Man that song "My Friend" is unbelievable...and so much better at high volume...the bass was just thunderous, and they really got jamming at the end.

The house was packed and the crowd was really into it. It's cool going to a rock show and being one of the younger fans again...although I realized we entered another demographic when the line for the men's room was longer than that for the ladies' room...The Prostate Factor if you will.

Tom Deutch, i was a real pleasure meeting Tom Petersson after Friday's show. what a nice guy. I always wanted to ask why he built a 12 string bass...and he was really into telling the story!!! I won't forget how he got interrupted by some promoter guy and said "I'll tell you the rest later" and then sure enough he comes back over 20 minutes later and picks up where he left off! Mike, he had an old Gibson T-Bird bass which he used for a few tunes...really crunchy! I always wanted one of those...and I said something like that when we were talking...He got just as excited as you would talking basses...like we were taking a break from darts at a BWBB weekend.

Mr. Petersson shared some secrets about his sound on Friday...splitting the signal three ways and going into three different GUITAR amps. I got a better look at his set-up tonight. It is a wheeled trolley (like one of those baggage carts at the airport) with three guitar amps (looks like a marshall head with a 4-10 cabinet) and one bigger unit that looks like it might hold a 15. Anyway, his whole attitude is "I'm essentially in a three piece and I wanted to make as much noise as I could." Reasonable.

I saw that fat long-aired guy in the red t-shirt tonight who was standing in front of us on Friday. I don't think he washed the shirt...he certainly hadn't washed his hair...but I bought him a Rolling Rock pre-show since we are united in some sort of strange way.

Boys, the post-show was not nearly as eventful this evening...mostly sitting and listening to my ears ringing. I could have used a coupla-three of those fancy liquor-drinks that we had in the Starlight Lounge...man, I was good and ripped within 10 minutes with those girly drinks.

I loved the bartender who overheard CD telling the waitress about being from "The South." He rushed over with a framed picture of Richard Petty to show him...Bones is staring at this guy like he's crazy (Like everyone south of virginia loves NASCAR)...meanwhile I was trying to get on his good side but, as usual, with a decided lack of knowledge about racing...I keps saying things like "He's king of the Brickyard!" and "He took those chumps to school at Taladega" but I really could have used Austin's input to really lend some credibility. Frig, well we got some free liquor-drinks in the process...A fine evening!

Well boys, it's time for bed...Let's hear it for Rock and Roll done right and done loud!

Taladega Rules!!!!

Pete E Carlos

unit 14 note: The photos above were actually taken at the Foxwoods show on April 18, 2003 by Tom Dott. Actually, he's in the photos, so how could he have taken them? I don't know who took the pictures, but Tommy sent them to me.