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Joan Jett & The Blackhearts With Cheap Trick
LA County Fair
September 15, 2018
By Eric Sandberg
Cheap Trick Setlist:
Hello There |You Got It Going On |On Top of the World |California Man |Ain't That a Shame
|The Ballad of T.V. Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy) | Summer Looks Good on You |I'm Waiting for the Man| The Flame | I Want You to Want Me |Dream Police | Surrender |Goodnight Now
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts Setlist:
Victim of Circumstance |Cherry Bomb | Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) | Bad Reputation| Soulmates to Strangers | You Drive Me Wild | Light of Day | Fake Friends | TMI |Love Is Pain | Fragile |Fresh Start | Love Is All Around |I Love Rock 'n' Roll | Crimson & Clover | I Hate Myself for Loving You
Encore:
Everyday People
I've lived fifteen minutes from the LA County Fairgrounds for the past twenty years and have never set foot in them until an old friend (boss) invited me to see this show for free. Hmm...not a Joan fan and Cheap Trick, one of my all-time favorite bands, had been on live moratorium ever since the Bun e. sacking.
But I couldn't say no to an old friend (boss) who I hadn't seen in a couple of years. It proved to be an interesting night of intrigue with some music in the background. I met him at a local microbrewery he frequents (The LaVerne Brewing Co.) and he stood me to a delightful dark lager. Then we hopped into his car and drove through a series of remote checkpoints where he and a procession of security guards nodded at each other in recognition.
Finally, we parked in a quiet space, he got a backpack out of the trunk, and we stepped right into the Fair, no gate, no tickets, no inspection. "You might see some things tonight that you're not supposed to see," he said enigmatically.
The LA County Fair is generally comprised of a million people pushing and jostling their way from one deep-fried food stand to another. With much effort we made it to our seats high up on a grandstand that once overlooked horse races.
Cheap Trick took the stage promptly at 7:30 PM with their venerable show opener "Hello There." Having not seen them since 2011, I was amazed at the energy they still displayed. They followed with their fairly recent, nebulous-radio-chart "hit", "You Got It Goin' On" which, as garbage goes, didn't smell too bad.
They followed with four straight classics culminating with the surprise "ballad," "The Ballad of TV Violence" (originally titled "The Ballad of Richard Speck" for you trainspotters out there). After winning over the crowd they tested us with their most recent pile of steaming..."Summer Looks Good On You."
Then, as if to really try my patience, they launched into a lengthy performance of Tom Petersson's early club days vocal spotlight, Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For My Man." Why? I don't know. I would have much preferred "I Know What I Want And I Know How To Get It".
It took me a little while to notice that there was a young man standing behind Tom, just in front of the stack, Malcolm Young style, playing guitar. Robin Zander Jr. was ably beefing up their sound and letting his pops concentrate on the singing. No complaints here.
As far as the drum stool is concerned, the subject is a bit of a dichotomy for me, as Daxx Nielsen, who is a fine drummer, does not play with the same feel as Mr. Carlos. That drum sound is a huge part of Cheap Trick's musical identity and it is simply not there. That said, Daxx's energy is clearly pushing the performances to the level they are today and were frankly somewhat lacking the last time I saw them with Bun e.
After this lull in the proceedings the crowd got what they came for; their four biggest hits (you know what they are) and a goodbye with "Goodnight Now." Overall a satisfying set which thankfully excluded "In The Street" and "If You Want My Love You've Got It" which they stubbornly played for years because the former was the theme of a popular sitcom, and the latter because "It was number one in Australia!" So play it when you're in Australia.
After their set, I meandered down to the merch table with my In Color...LP hoping they might be signing stuff, but a check of their itnerary showed they were playing in Washington State the next night so they were probably already on the bus. Sure enough, when I got back to my seat I saw the big coach pulling out from behind the stage. It made a left turn and my host for the evening said "They aren't going to get out that way." Two minutes later we saw the coach back-tracking and heading in the opposite direction.
Yeah, Joan Jett played, too. Honestly, if I had bought my ticket I would have been home in bed by the time she hit the stage, but we mustn't be rude to our generous host. She's the headliner, all of her biggest hits are covers but, OK, she can rock. If I can watch a 65 year old man sing "I Want You To Want Me" I can hang when a skeletal 60 year old woman sings "Do You Want To Touch Me".
After seven numbers, mixing some hits with a couple of Runaways tunes and a Springsteen cover, the spotlight shone on a guy sitting behind a bank of keyboards I had not noticed visually or audibly to that point (or after). He looked and sounded like a cross between Paul Shafer and my accountant.
"I stawted the Blackhawts wit' Joan many ye-ahs ago when no-one tawt a woman could front a roo-awk band..."
OK, this was just to let us know that there actually was an original member of the Blackhearts on stage with Joan. It doesn't matter that the only time you could hear him was when he was tawking.
After frontloading her set with hits (and sounding alarmingly like Liza Minnelli during her between-song banter) Joan ran into a dry patch of unfamiliar material which nearly lost the crowd, including a new song "Fresh Start" written for the upcoming Bad Reputation documentary, a song which will be forgotten just as quickly as "Summer Looks Good On You."
The band closed out their set (we thought) with a cover of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, "I Love Rock and Roll", "Crimson & Clover" and "I Hate Myself For Loving You." Joan smartly plays that song last, far away from "Do You Wanna Touch Me" as they are essentially the same song.
My host pointed out that Joan plays all her hits just like the records, no stretching, audience call and response...none of that. We started our treacherous trek down the slippery stairs of the grandstand while Joan announced "We're gonna do two more!" More like too more.
As we passed the merch table I noted that the Cheap Trick side was gutted, even half the display items were sold, while The Joan Jett side looked like it had just opened up.
But wait...what was in the smuggled backpack, you may be asking? Lets just say that the contents were passed around to my host's nearby friends and family members and they made the evening go down just that much smoother.
