Davis Park - Rockford, IL - August 28, 1999

This  show was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event!   It's not often that a fan is treated to 3 hours worth of performances with material coming off of every album ever released (some done with special arrangment), former band members making cameo appearances, and marquee special guests.  In light, you could say this is a true Cheap Trick's fan dream come true.

Without further adeiu, here's the set list, my personal notes, and some pictures I took from the forementioned evening.

My Notes

Probably the first surprise of the evening for me was seeing them do the theme song for "That 70s Show."  During that song, as I recall, Tod Howarth (touring keyboardist from 1985-86 and 1990-95) joined them on stage and remained at the helm the rest of the evening.

Right before they did "If You Want My Love," they introduced Jon Brant (pictured to the left), who was their bassist from 1982 to 1987.  He joined the band on "If You Want My Love" and "She's Tight."  "She's Tight was absolutely brilliant!

I was surprised to hear "Can't Stop Falling Into Love."  I always felt the band frowned this one.

My Notes

They started Set 2 on an acoustic note.  Rick's son Daxx and a friend joined in on drums.  The set started out with mid-1980s songs.  Then, Robin did a number off his 1993 self-titled solo CD, "Time Will Let You Know," which was dedicated to his wife.  The Harlem High School choir and violinists from the Rockford Symphony Orchestra joined in with the band, as well as Robin's daughter Holland, who put on a superb performance.  Rick then dedicated "World's Greatest Lover" to his wife and sang that.  The rest of the set was "been there, done that" songs.

My Notes

Tom opened up the third set with his traditional rendition of "I Know What I Want.  Otherwise, the first 3 songs were from the "been there, done that" files.  I was beginning to wonder if/when the special guests would show up.  

Loe and behold, as they were getting ready to start "You're All Talk," a guy with a baseball cap, long black curly hair, and cigarette hanging out of his mouth came out with a Les Paul--that's Slash!  He broke a guitar string on the first strum, so he needed a new guitar.  No problem!

Julian Lennon was supposed to have guested on "I'm Losing You," but due to prior committments, he couldn't make it.  Instead, Rick's other musical son, Miles, replaced him and did a brillant job.

The rest of the songs up until the encore were also old hat, but I came extremely close to catching the "record."  As soon as I catch that record, I promise to stop going to Cheap Trick concerts!  LOL  

The band came back out to do "Just Got Back."  They added 2 drummers on stage--one drum head said "Drum" the other said "Choir."  Hmm...

This time, Art Alexakis of Everclear joined them on stage.  <Please forgive me if I spelled that name wrong!>  He looked like he was having fun.  Then, they did "Daytripper," with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins joining them on that!  I was pretty impressed that Cheap Trick was able to line up such "hip" artists for guests.

The last song for the night was "Who D' King."  The Harlem High School choir returned to the stage and were joined by the drummers of the Phantom Regiment.  It was quite an experience!  Security had cleared out the center aisle in the crowd, and everybody on stage (including the band, the choir, and the drummers) walked off the stage and proceeded into the crowd and that's how the night ended!

To my understanding, this is supposed to be released on video eventually.  It probably won't include all 3 hours, but hopefully, it will be a good representation of the evening.

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