Took the wife up to Milwaukee this past weekend to see Cheap Trick perform the Dream Police album in its entirety, with a small orchestra. They were outstanding! Original members Rick, Tom, and Robin were joined by Rick's son Daxx on drums (he's been filling in for Bun for a while), his other son Miles on backing guitar and vocals, their usual touring keyboardist (don't recall his name), small string and horn sections with conductor, and 4 backup singers. I'm usually not a fan of the "adding lots of extra people to the 4 piece rock band" (the Who, Pink Floyd), OR the rock band + orchestra thing, but this really worked and made complete sense. Everyone sounded GREAT! Nielsen's guitars, Tom's 12 strings, and Robin's voice - wow! There are very few that can sing like this guy EVER, and here he is at 58 years old knocking it out of the park. I've seen some recent YouTube clips that sounded like he might be losing it, but Saturday was near flawless. Tom played most of the first set (Dream Police) on the Electrical aluminum 12er, with a couple on the rhinestone encrusted Waterstone 12. Most of the second set (misc. hits and favorites) was a Lull T-bird with a neck pickup instead of a bridge pickup, and a reverse headstock. This one was less spectacular sounding than the 12ers. I love the neck pup concept, but I think it could benefit from a third one in the stock bridge position. Bottom line - if you're anywhere near one of these shows, GO! It was a great time, and there's not a bad seat in the house.
