Sept. 24, 1978 review: Grand finale at the Century

 


The last of many memorable nights at the Century Theater.

Sept. 24, 1978 review

Band’s Last Bash Sends

Rock Palace Out Wailing

        In some ways, the last rock concert in the Century Theater Saturday night starts like any other – the guys chugging beer under the marquee on East Mohawk Street and squatters who don’t want to leave their newfound seats.

        And aside from two brief announcements from Harvey Weinstein, co-proprietor of this broken-down rock ‘n roll palace since 1974, there’s little time wasted on sentimentality. The bands aren’t weepers. Forget the wrecking ball. They’ll level the place with guitars.

        First ones to try to blow down the walls with music is 1994, which recycles the principal members of the L.A. Jets, a group that appeared in the concert party of Streisand’s “A Star Is Born.”

        The band is all guitars and thunder around a singer in black named Karen Lawrence, a saucy maid with pierce blue eyes and a voice to match. The group has two intensities – louder and loudest. Their music is all attack.

        Nevertheless, something about the occasion inspired Lawrence midway through the half-hour set and she lifts the band out of the mundane with a kind of energy that’s reminiscent of the late Janis Joplin.

        This is merely a warmup, however, for the deafening exploits of Cheap Trick. The quartet from Chicago, playing here for the fourth time in 17 months, has sold the place out for their first headlining appearance here, and they keep the crowd on their feet throughout.

        Cheap Trick’s show is the one that’s made them teenage idols in Japan – rhythm and decibels, the cuteness of singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson, the eccentricity of drummer Bun E. Carlos and guitarist Rick Nielsen.

        As headliners, the group has abandoned most of its attempts at harmony, leaving poor Zander and his echo to scream themselves into laryngitis. The songs are stretched with deafening ensemble instrumentals. A Nielsen solo zaps a few more eardrums.

        Nielsen, meanwhile, wows the audience more than ever. He hops on and off his stairway, bounds across the stage, gives bug-eyed thumbs-up signals and wears as many as three guitars at once.

        He flicks dozens of autographed guitar picks into the front rows. In return, fans present him with a guitar pick as big as a guitar. He tries it out.

        The material is slam-bang all the way. Along with most of the favorites from the group’s past two albums is a new song called "I Need Your Love.” The three encores are “How Are You,” “On Top of the World” and “Clock Strikes Ten.”

        As the group scurries into its waiting limousines, Weinstein throws an encore of his own – free drinks at the bar in the upstairs lobby.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Harvey Weinstein and Corky Berger outside the Century Theater in 1974.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: The Century Theater kept showing movies until December, was site of a memorabilia auction in January and a wall collapsed onto the Burger King next door in March during demolition. Harvey and Corky opened a nightclub, Stage One, near Main Street and Transit Road in Clarence, and moved their operations to a grim second-floor suite of rooms in Memorial Auditorium.

Cheap Trick, on the other hand, is still standing. They're joining another sensation from the late '70s – Heart – which is hitting the road for the first time in five years this summer for what's being called the Royal Flush Tour.  They start April 20 in South Carolina and come to KeyBank Center in Buffalo on Aug. 11.

Karen Lawrence went on to sing on tracks for Jeff Beck and Aerosmith, and for the past 30 years has headed a Southern California blues group called Blue by Nature with her longtime collaborator, guitarist Fred Hostetler. Her Facebook page reports that as of March 15 she has a new album, "The Blues Is Back," available on all digital platforms.

What setlist.fm says Cheap Trick played that night in the Century Theater may have to be taken with a grain of salt. Encores are not at all what's reported in the review:

Hello There

Come On, Come On

Stiff Competition

On Top of the World

Takin' Me Back

Southern Girls

Big Eyes

I Want You to Want Me

High Roller

Need Your Love

California Man (The Move cover)

Surrender

Goodnight

(encore)

Auf Wiedersehen

(encore)

Heaven Tonight

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