Free Tickets To A Concert? I'll Go!

The Classic Rock radio station WDRV 97.1 recently gave away free tickets to its 13th Birthday Party concert featuring Cheap Trick & Peter Frampton at the Rosemont Theater Friday June 20th.   Cheap Trick is one of my favorite bands so I needed to figure out how to get my hands on those free tickets. I’ll be honest, I am not a frequent WDRV listener (I love classic rock music but if I hear Manfred Mann’s Blinded By The Light one more time, I will hurl!), and one of the ways to win the tickets was to be the 13th caller whenever a Frampton or Cheap Trick song was played.  I knew that wouldn’t work.  I did sign up on WDRV’s website for their online drawing but as the show was about a week away and I didn’t receive and email stating I won the tickets online, well, that had to be another way.  

WDRV also had drawings for the tickets at various store locations but Skokie and Mt Prospect was too far to drive on a week night during rush hour. Luckily, they had a drawing at Dicks Sporting Goods (new location on Canal Street) on Saturday June 14th at noon. I grabbed a friend and off we went.  We were happy that WDRV brought about 50 pairs of tickets and maybe 35 people showed up so knew we would win the tickets and we did.  No front row seats but section 109 on the main floor worked well for us. 

Cheap Trick and Peter Frampton, 2 artists from the 70’s, still perform nonstop. Both bands also had great success early in their careers with live album releases, Frampton Comes Alive released in 1976 went on to sell 11 million copied worldwide while Cheap Trick At Budokan went triple platinum.  

Cheap Trick opened the show this past Friday night with the always searing ‘Hello There’. I was bursting out of my seat as the band followed with ‘California Man’, then on to ‘Ain’t That A Shame’. My friend and I were singing along and dancing and having the best time however to my dismay, the rest of the crowd was seated. Why?? I have no idea. It wasn’t all middle aged fans but the enthusiasm was not there as Cheap Trick tore thru all their songs. Of course, someone yelled, sit down, and even rudely threw something at my friend but we ignored them, this is a loud Cheap Trick concert, get off your butt and enjoy it! If security came by and told me to sit down, I would’ve but that wasn’t the case. I did wonder as the show went on, if there was some off rule at the Rosemont Theater stating that you must stay seated for concerts. I thought, no way, that just wouldn’t be right or make any sense at all!! The crowd did perk up and stood for I Want You To Want Me, Surrender, and Dream Police, otherwise this was a dud crowd. Cheap Trick played for about an hour and sounded on top of their game as usual. Rick Nielsen is by far one of the finest guitarists to have ever lived, he tore thru Need Your Love with such grit and grace, and it was delightful. His guitar collection is always a spectacular sight as well.   

After they were done, I could’ve used another glass of wine to calm down, but I figured Frampton’s set would do that for me. I kindly sat for most of his set, as those behind me probably were happy about that.  Frampton is a fine guitarist, no doubt, but he lacks charisma on stage. Cheap Trick are top notch performers, Frampton is guitarist with a band, he doesn’t bring a lot of flair to his show. He did have a montage of photos from his 70’s rock days on a large video screen behind him which was cool and he did an amazing cover of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, probably the highlights of his set.  

I am glad the show was held at a smaller venue like The Rosemont Theater that holds about 4500 people as opposed to the Allstate Arena. The crowded leaned toward the 40 to 50 something crowd but it was nice to see plenty of 30 something’s as well with kids in tow. Free concerts are a rarity so having the opportunity to see these 2 bands together in one evening certainly was worth the ride to the burbs.  

Don’t forget to tune into WXAV (88.3fm or @ www.wxav.com) every Wednesday night from 7pm to 9pm for Alternative Sounds For Your Head with host radioruta. Alternative, indie, new wave, punk, electronic music and more!!  Also, Music While U Work Thursday mornings 10am to noon.