April 30, 1977 review: Boston and Cheap Trick at the Aud

 

Guess which one of these bands got inducted first into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. See the Footnote. 

April 30, 1977 

Boston’s Rocket Ascent

Marks Newest Heroes 

          “Welcome the hottest new band in America,” emcee John McGahn announces Friday night. “Boston!”

          The spotlight picks out rock’s freshest sensation – a tall, cool, lank-haired, 29-year-old named Tom Scholz. He wears a black jacket with big zippers and launches into the sound of a rocket ascent with his blond guitar.

          Once he achieves liftoff, they’re all into it – a big, electronically-enriched, pulsating flow that rings as massively as must the music of the spheres.

          Boston is proof that each new rock generation finds its own heroes. The recognition has been almost instantaneous.

          A year ago, this quintet of Massachusetts bar band veterans was finishing its first album. Since its August release, that album has sold upwards of 3 million copies.

          For their first visit here, more than 17,000 kids show up in Memorial Auditorium to see them – a huge and energetic crowd, predominantly suburban high-schoolers, that fills all the seats but the oranges behind the stage.

* * *

THEIR HIT, “More Than a Feeling,” comes second in their hour-long set. It’s followed, as it is on the record, by “Peace of Mind,” where Boston’s dense tripled guitars and straight-ahead beat recalls the Doobie Brothers’ “China Grove.”

          As they review their album (Scholz speaks out once – to introduce “Smokin’”) and introduce some likeable new numbers for their two encores, it’s clear that Boston is not a tuneful band.

          A catchy phrase is enough for them. They build the rest on effects. Particularly Scholz’s solos. They float on waves of carefully-crafted fuzz and distortion – once with no hands. That’s what he did for five years in the basement.

          Scholz’s mysterious intensity balances the gregariousness of Brad Delp, a curly-haired screamer with a penchant for shaking hands along the lip of the stage. Another balance is struck as second guitarist Barry Goudreau duets with Scholz.

* * *

SETTING UP Boston’s sound – which at close range numbed the ears and resonated through the thorax – added 15 minutes to the intermission.

          Opening was Cheap Trick, a Midwestern band with a new debut album and a knack for teen rave-up.

          Cheap Trick satisfies that ‘70s dictum of something for everyone.

          Most of all, there’s a goofy guitarist in a baseball hat who mugs and lurches around the stage in wigged-out abandon. His name is Rick Nielsen and he’s the most compelling performer since Paul Stanley of Kiss. Cheap trick? Yes, but it works.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Boston in a 1976 promo photo, with Brad Delp on the left and Tom Scholz second from the left.  Cheap Trick in 1977, from left, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Bun E. Carlos and Tom Petersson.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: And the answer is … Cheap Trick!  But only by two years. Rick Nielsen and his buddies arrived in 2016 and Tom Scholz’s crew was brought in two years later. It’s considered one of the greatest snubs in rock hall history, especially since Boston had the second biggest-selling debut album of all time.   

          Boston’s initial flash didn’t last, though. The second album sold half a well as the first and then Tom Scholz got into a lengthy legal dispute with his record label. His painstaking recording process, layering all those guitar parts in his own studio, which always seemed to be under renovation, didn’t help either. The other band members went off on solo projects. Singer Brad Delp, who came back to the band in 1994, took his own life in 2007. Scholz, who told an interviewer in 2017 that he expects to live another 30 years, currently is working on a seventh album.

          Cheap Trick didn’t have to wait long for their big moment, which happened in 1978 in Tokyo, where they were wildly popular. Their live album, “Cheap Trick at Budokan,” made them worldwide stars.

          But Cheap Trick also battled with their record company – CBS, some one as Boston’s – and bassist Tom Petersson left the group in 1980. His return seven years later coincided with a comeback. They’re still touring and recording, with Rick Nielsen’s son Daxx replacing original drummer Bun E. Carlos, who left in 2010. It’s said they’ve played more than 5,000 live dates.  

          Only one song appears on Boston's entry for this date on setlist.fm. For the show a few nights earlier at The Dome in Allendale, Mich., there's a more complete lineup: 

More Than a Feeling

Smokin' 

Rock & Roll Band 

Foreplay/Long Time

Peace of Mind 

Party 

Something About You

Hitch a Ride

Let Me Take You Home Tonight

          Setlist for a date later that week in the Hartford, Conn., Civic Center included "A Man I'll Never Be" and "Don't Look Back," both from the second album. 

          As for Cheap Trick, they played 181 shows that year, including another one at the Century Theater in October. There's no setlist from this date in the Aud, but here's what they played May 10 at the El Mocambo in Toronto: 

Hello There

Come On, Come On

Elo Kiddies

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace (Terry Reid cover)

Big Eyes 

Southern Girls

Downed

Loser

Ain't That a Shame (Fats Domino cover)

Please, Mrs. Henry (Bob Dylan and the Band cover)

He's a Whore

Down on the Bay (Move cover)

Goodnight