Wed. July 14

 I was once played in a charity golf tournament with Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen and his son. His son was a scratch golfer; Nielsen a little more than that. So I asked: "What's your handicap?" Said Rick: "My handicap is golf." Ba-da-boom. Cheap Trick has been part of our pop-rock landscape since the mid-1970s. They've played clubs and arenas, toured with the cool and the uncool. One of the things that impresses most is they're a working band. They don't take much time off. They don't rest on their catalog, They've always mixed a certain tongue-in-cheek humor with their anthems. Singer Robin Zander always seems to be eternally youthful and Nielsen always plays multiple guitars and tosses zillions of picks at us. It's a ritual, it's a shtick, but it rocks and if "SMommy's all right/Daddy's all right/They just seem a little weird/ Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away!"  They co-headline Bank of America Pavilion Wednesday July 14 with another seminal pop-rock band, the UK's Squeeze. "Surrender" isn't the best generational bonding song of all time I don't know what is. "

I talked with Nielsen earlier this year about the fortunes of the Tricksters for the Herald.
  Here’s an expanded version: 

     Cheap Trick has had hits. They’ve had misses. They are, in Nielsen’s words, “too dumb to quit.”
     In 2007, they played a string of shows doing the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album. They recorded in New York Dec. 12 at the Waldorf Astoria. “Sgt. Pepper Live” was released as CD/DVD last year. It was engineered by Geoff Emerick, who did the very same thing for the original Beatles album.
     Cheap Trick has been an inspiration for countless bands, Green Day, Weezer, and Fountains of Wayne, among them.
    And this is where we start with Nielsen, who was on tour, as always, phoning from Charlottesville, Virginia.
    JSInk: You’re name-checked by scads of younger bands. That’s got to feel good.
    Nielsen: Well, it’s hard to find older bands that like us. It’s like this band joke I once said to Bun E. [Carlos, the drummer]. I had this drum machine part on a demo song - this was 25 years ago – and I said, “What do you think of that?” and he said “Well, if you want someone to play it you’re going to have to find a younger drummer!” I said “Bun E. we’re gonna have a heckuva time trying to find an older one.” … Not many old groups are giving high praise to Cheap Trick.
     Still, unlike a lot of your peers, you’re not just touring on your catalog, and you’re still making new music.
     But certain songs we play no matter what. It’s like our cooking ingredients – celery, onion and carrots.
    And those are …
    “I Want You to Want Me,” “Surrender” and “Dream Police.”
     You ever tire of them?
     Not really. They’re good songs, people like ‘em, and you surround ‘em with other stuff.     

    How many songs do you have?
     I dunno, 5400, something like that. I’d have to think about it. There aren’t that many that get played [live].
   You’ve got a rockin’ new album, “The Latest.” Great title, by the way. People can ask a record store clerk for Cheap Trick’s latest.
   Thanks. I was thinking of all the records that have come out. Somebody else must have done that. It’s such a common thing to say. But no.
    Of course, there aren’t really a lot of record stores these days and most people buy single downloads not records. Does that affect how you work?  

    I’m sure it does, but I don’t think about it. We like making records. We like being in the studio. Making records is something I wanted to do when I was in high school and it’s still the be-all. That is cool to me.
    How did “Sgt. Pepper Live” come about?   
    The people from the Hollywood Bowl asked us if we would do it. They said, “You guys are perfect.” We said, “Uh, we’re not a cover band. We’re not gonna fake being a Beatles band on a cruise ship.” So we didn’t think too much about it. But how else are we gonna be at the Hollywood Bowl? And there were the ties we had from Bun E. and I playing with John Lennon [on “Double Fantasy”] and working with George Martin and Geoff Emerick. One of Geoff’s quotes was, “The difference between the original and this is: With the Beatles it seemed more like a demo and with Cheap Trick the energy is like how it should have been.” Wow, what a compliment!
   Have you lost anything over the years?
   Brain cells? That youthful grace I used to have? No, never had that. Youthful good looks? Never had that. Smart-aleck attitude? Wait a minute, got plenty of that. We’re still full of it.
    “Sick Man of Europe” on the new disc is a screaming rocker.
     Sounds like a 60-year-old guitar player.

      And you’re 63.
      I’m 61, actually. I was born in ’48. They put me at the wrong year every year in Rolling Stone. It’s not like I’m trying to buy beer anymore. I don’t need help getting into the liquor store.
     I’ve always seen blues and country being genres where artists can grow older comfortably. Can you do it with rock, too?
    Hell, I don’t know. Depends on who it is. There’s nothing more disgusting than somebody your parents’ age trying to be your age. But nowadays all the kids that come to our shows, their parents are younger than me.
     So you’re the exception to your rule?
    All those rules are very important, except for me.
Now, the guitar questions. How many do you have? Didn’t you lose some in a house fire years ago?
    No, I didn’t lose any guitars in the fire. I lost part of my house. I have 400-something.
    Are you a hoarder? Should we stage an intervention?
    We should. No, I’ve owned about 2000 before, so I’m really cutting down. I never want to get rid of anything. Back in the day, people used to trade in their guitars, but those days are gone. Well, people still trade ‘em in, but now they call them “vintage,” not “used.” I already have one book out on guitars, and I’m gonna do another.
    Great.
    Yeah, like people need another stupid thing. If you go to a guitar show, you see all those lunatics.
   How many guitars do you take on the road with you?
   I use 25-30 every show, one per song.
  Is it a question of different tunings?
  That’s how it started. You always hate see someone stop during a song and tune up. I always hit the guitar pretty hard, so if something broke I’d just grab another one. One of my better quotes is “I can make any guitar sound like crap.” I don’t need a certain one that cures all, I can make ‘em all sound like crap.

Tickets: $55-$30. Show starts at 8.

290 Northern Ave., 800-745-3000  www.livenation.com