OTB Latenight – Cheap Trick

I saw this band three times in six months back in 1988-89. Paid the first time, which was worth it to see Joan Jett open up, then saw them for free in Daytona Beach and at school later. The show was exactly the same all three times, right down to the jokes.

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Dodd Harris
About Dodd Harris
Dodd, who used to run a blog named ipse dixit, is an attorney, a veteran of the United States Navy, and a fairly good poker player. He contributed over 650 pieces to OTB between May 2007 and September 2013. Follow him on Twitter @Amuk3.

Comments

  1. Eric Florack says:

    The show was exactly the same all three times, right down to the jokes.

    That’s not at all unusual, in my experience…
    (Alas!)

  2. Thanks, I needed that.

  3. anjin-san says:

    The show was exactly the same all three times, right down to the jokes.

    That’s not at all unusual, in my experience…

    Sounds sort of like bitsy’s posts.

    My buddies band opened for them at that Daytona beach show, but I had to work & could not make the trip.

  4. James Joyner says:

    Our ROTC “Rangers” detachment worked setup and breakdown plus security for various acts that played at Jacksonville State. We did Cheap Trick circa 1986-87. Other than that I’ve still got a few logoed guitar picks from the concert somewhere, I don’t remember much about the show.

  5. Dodd says:

    That’s not at all unusual, in my experience…

    Indeed. I saw U2 three times in ’87 and they only made a couple of changes from one show to the next. Kinda disappointing.

  6. Eric Florack says:

    I saw U2 three times in ’87 and they only made a couple of changes from one show to the next. Kinda disappointing.

    And for me, Boston, The Eagles, (With Walsh, Jimmy Buffet opened for them) And a few other acts that I had occasions to see more than once, usually in some professional capacity or other.(AC/DC, Crawler, Rush, Don Williams, Milsap, Reba,… )

    More recently, I had occasion to see Trace Adkins three or four times, across a few states. (My wife is a fan of his, and this was before he went large.) To his credit, his shows weren’t copies of each other, but there were decided cues that the band took from each other each time, in a well-practiced fashion.

    I suspect that the kind of repetition were talking about the is not so much a matter of being formulaic, although that certainly does enter the equation. The real issue is giving the band is a cohesive unit a pattern to fall into, which is well established and comfortable.

    I suppose that they figure the only people that are gonna notice the repetition is people that have followed them from show to show. On that basis, practical and comfortable beats innovation in such shows and venues.

  7. sam says:

    For the last time Bit, and I really, really mean this–Will you please start a music blog.

  8. sam says:

    For the last time Bit, and I really, really mean this–Will you please start a music blog.