The Severed Cortex

I'm glad I didn't pay for these tickets. Nancy Schultz had a couple free tickets and since she couldn't find anyone else willing to subject themselves to some geezer rock in the soulless confines of St. Charles County, I agreed to go. We skipped the opening act Soul Asylum completely and instead decided to buy watered down drinks at Sidepockets, an upscale pool joint in the same shopping complex as Bass Pro Shops.
We arrived just as Cheap Trick was taking the stage. They started by giving a shout out to Beatle Bob. Rick Neilsen played a different guitar through the first six or seven songs, which mostly consisted of songs I've never heard before. I heard their new CD was touted by the critics, but if the songs they opened with are part of that release then I want nothing to do with it. By about song eight they realized they were losing the crowd of 2,000 or so and broke into I Want You To Want Me. That got the crowd back in it some, but it was quickly lost on the next set of crap loser tunes. They chimed in with the theme song to That 70's Show, then quickly went back to the filler music. I finally gave up and went to the bathroom only to hear them crank up Surrender. Bastards. The only decent song they sing and I'm giving back the rented beer when they do it. They played one more non-noteworthy tune before they came back with the obligatory encore of Dream Police.
Generally this concert sucked. It wasn't loud enough for one thing. All in all, Robin Zander and the boys look and play like geezers.