On March 31, two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees will be at KeyBank Center. Heart and Cheap Trick were perennial favorites during the height of the arena rock era in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Both bands declined in popularity in the early days of MTV before finding unlikely success with power ballads.
My journey with these bands has been a personal one. I remember the thrill of seeing Cheap Trick, the third band I ever saw live, in 1980 during their “Dream Police” Tour. I had traded my ticket to a sold-out Van Halen concert for this, a decision I never regretted. It would be decades before I could see Van Halen with David Lee Roth on lead vocals.
Cheap Trick has long been one of my favorite live bands, and I own all of their Epic Records-era albums on vinyl. Their 1979 release, “At Budokan,” is a classic and easily one of the best live albums ever recorded. Nevertheless, my favorite Cheap Trick live album is “Silver,” which they recorded in 1999 to mark the band’s 25th anniversary.
Over the last two decades, Cheap Trick has mainly been a support act with occasional headlining shows. To their credit, they do mix up their setlists, so even though they usually play for under an hour, you will get a deep cut or two.
After “Dream Police,” the group released a series of records that didn’t fare as well commercially. They had a few radio hits and a couple of songs on MTV, including “If You Want My Love” and “Tonight’s It’s You,” but it was “The Flame” that solidified the group’s place in history.
While “The Flame” is undeniably a great song, especially thanks to Robin Zander’s gut-wrenching vocal performance, it still does not represent the band’s best material. I prefer “Voices” from “Dream Police,” which, unlike “The Flame,” is an original composition.
The group still has three of the four original members, and Robin Zander’s voice has not diminished.
Like Cheap Trick, Heart is a band that has had its share of challenges and triumphs. Their early hits include “Magic Man,” “Barracuda,” and “Crazy on You.” They experienced a commercial decline in the early 1980s before switching to Capitol Records in 1985 and releasing a series of chart-topping singles, with “Alone,” released in 1987, being the group’s most popular from the era.
Much like “The Flame,” “Alone” is great because of an outstanding vocal performance by Heart’s Ann Wilson. The first time I heard the song performed live, it gave me chills, and in a stripped-down form without the 1980s production elements, the song is significantly better. Check out the version on Heart’s “The Road Home” album.
Nancy Wilson is also an underrated guitar player. Heart has always had a second guitar player in the band, but Nancy’s playing both acoustic and electric guitar is an integral part of Heart’s songs, and she is an excellent singer as well.
Even though both groups are no longer in their prime, they are both road warriors who have always known how to put on a great show, and getting to see two arena-era bands in a hockey arena should be a treat, especially now that the arena isn’t filled with cigarette smoke.