Out To Get You! is better than Budokan, I think. You must do both.

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Cheap Trick - At Budokan

Doing this in reverse order (you’ll see) but without much background on Cheap Trick, a good chance to spend an hour and a half with them. This is a particularly fun release, in large part because the band really leans into the rock n roll kitch. I mean, a whole song to say hello into Come On Come On!? Sign me up. And then a whole rock song about saying Goodnight at a rock show!? Hell yeah. If you are gonna cliche, cliche all the way! To that end, the highlights here are Big Eyes, the closing Clock Strikes Ten, and the hits I Want You to Want Me, and Surrender. Such easy fun.

The Essential Performance: Surrender

Up Next: Cheap Trick - Out to Get You! Live 1977

Cheap Trick - Out to Get You! Live 1977

In the same year, I think, as Budokan, the band has got some serious chops here. I never thought of this before, but did Stone Temple Pilots legit just lift riffs off these guys? It sure feels like it in spots on this thing. That aside, this album has a bit more of a punk energy to it than Budokan, and they’re just rockin’ on this one. You can definitely hear a youth in them I never really thought of. I mostly just feel like I have been missing out on this band for decades. They are really fun. I mean, it takes them two songs about good night to finally leave the room! I’m into these guys in a way I wasn’t before this journey…maybe the biggest surprise of the journey so far even if it doesn’t make the top of my live album list in the end. Top notch live hard rock band!

The Essential Performance: Big Eyes (there were a lot of close seconds)

Up Next: Ted Nugent - Double Live Gonzo

There you go.

Edinboro 74 might change your mind about Zappa too. Seriously funky and fun.

When I saw STP, Cheap Trick opened for them.

Was it the same show?

???

Yes. Cheap Trick opened for STP when they were touring supporting Tiny Music…

Ha. I was just joking about the unexpected similarity.

D’oh!

Ted Nugent - Double Live Gonzo

We are now seamlessly sliding into an unapologetic 70s hard rock moment. Much of this excess is what feels like the groundwork of the hard rock bands of the 80s, sans makeup. Loud guitars, big solos, big screeching wails. And some of this is great, especially the cover of Baby, Please Don’t Go, a surprise in an otherwise balls to the wall rock show (granted, it’s a very loud version of the song). That said, there are moments where it does seem to get too much here, particularly on Hibernation and Motor City Madhouse, where even the slightest restraint may have made it just right and the excesses less cloying.

The Essential Performance: Baby, Please Don’t Go

Up Next: AC/DC - If You Want Blood You’ve Got It

"Baby Please Don't Go" is a carry-over from his old band Amboy Dukes, as heard on "Nuggets". That's why it's good.

Want Dang Sweet Poontang

(Y’know, it’s quite laughable that the GOP keep trying to label liberals as “groomers” when you have pieces of shit like Ted convincing the parents of a 17-year-old girl to make him her legal guardian when he was 30.)

'every accusation is an admission' has become a meme for a reason.

I don’t know about any of that stuff, but Nugent’s excess in parts of this would humble Dave Grohl.

AC/DC - If You Want Blood You Got It

In a continuation of big 70s rock, the band who if you know one song, you know them all. Really though, they certainly figured out a formula and just kept pushing it for a really long time. This live album with the original lineup (?) is really a one stop shop for AC/DC without the forthcoming future hits. Let There Be Rock is straight up ridiculous in every conception of the term - heavy rock cliche prophecies with giant riffs, solos, you name it. The track that hits hardest through is Bad Boy Boogie.

The Essential Performance: Bad Boy Boogie

Up Next: Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous

Not quite original, but kind of mk 1.2 of the first classic AC/DC line-up.

Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous

With no more exposure than the big hits, The Boys Are Back in Town and perhaps Jailbreak, this was another where expectations were quite open. Much like Cheap Trick, I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. These guys were great performers, and the guitar solos frankly wouldn’t sound out of place coming out of Mike McCready as much as another late 70s band of this sort. The slow songs seemed like a little lull but they also serve to break up the unrelenting heat these guys were bringing. Quite solid.

The Essential Performance: Cowboy Song > The Boys Are Back In Town

Up Next: Midnight Oil - Live at the Wireless 1978

Midnight Oil - Live at the Wireless 1978

We’re catching this band young before the big hits, and what’s immediately striking to me is that I mostly remember the politically motivated almost punk rock energy that this band has, but really so much is happening in their songs, none of it simple or a 3 chord drive. This release reads like a classic rock band but on a propulsive mission. I always love the Floyd-like Nothing Gained- Nothing Lost, the punk like Powderworks, or the classic sound of Take Me Down Easy. On this listen, I was really caught by Surfing With a Spoon which just has some killer bass riffs going on. These guys are always so much better than I remember on every listen.

The Essential Performance: Surfing With a Spoon

Up Next: Bob Marley and the Wailers - Easy Skankin’ in Boston 1978

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Easy Skankin’ in Boston 1978

Changing pace for a bit, Bob’s back, and this one seems much more focused on social injustice than the religious overtones of Babylon By Bus. While it starts sort of half paced, it picks up pretty quickly by Them Belly Full and really gets Heathen about as good as I’ve heard thus far. Rebel Music and I Shot the Sheriff are also fantastic. The encore suite of Jammin’ > War > No More Trouble > Get Up Stand Up > Exodus is outstanding, with the latter being the tops on this show.

The Essential Performance - Exodus

Up Next: Willie Nelson - Willie and Family Live