Cheap Trick Silver CD

Recorded live at Davis Park, Rockford, Illinois on August 28, 1999.

Cheap Trick only improves with age, as evidenced by this 25th anniversary show in front of a hometown crowd of 15,000. Aside from seminal tracks like "Surrender" and "I Want You to Want Me," the band includes songs from every one of its albums for this beautifully packaged double CD.

"That 70's Song," a kind of "Surrender" junior, shows Cheap Trick can still write a killer tune with a great hook. Extra strings enhance the lost classic "Tonight it's You," as does the addition of a choir and orchestra on "Time Will Let You Know." Ex-Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan plugs in his guitar for "Just Got Back," and the album concludes with "Who D' King," a drummer's delight made even more explosive by the appearance of the Phantom Regiment Drum Corps. (Drummer Bun E. Carlos apparently led the entire crew off the front of the stage, through the middle of the crowd and right out the front door with the entire crowd behind them.) SILVER is a fantastic souvenir of the first quarter century of a great rock band.

On August 28, 1999, power pop masters Cheap Trick played a special show for fans at Davis Park in their hometown of Rockford, IL, to salute their 25th anniversary as a band together. The show included several musical celebrities making cameo appearances (as well as relatives of Cheap Trick bandmembers) and the inclusion of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra String Quartet on several tracks, while the 29-song set list dipped deep into the band's catalog -- including at least one song from every album of their career thus far. The evening's proceedings have been captured on the 2001 double-disc Silver, the band's second live release in two years. All of the expected fan faves are included -- "Ain't That a Shame," "I Want You to Want Me," "Surrender," "Dream Police" -- but longtime fans will go straight to the set's abundance of more uncommon material. Standouts include two standards of early MTV ("If You Want My Love" and "She's Tight"), the Big Star tribute "That 70s Song," the forgotten 1979 Beatlesque power ballad "Voices," a song that two members of CT cut with John Lennon back in 1980 ("I'm Losin' You"), the jamfest "Gonna Raise Hell," plus tracks sung by other members -- "World's Greatest Lover" (Rick Nielsen) and "I Know What I Want" (Tom Petersson). Also featured are guest appearances by big-name fans Billy Corgan ("Just Got Back"), Slash ("You're All Talk"), and Art Alexakis ("Day Tripper"). Although it lacks the punch of their 1979 classic At Budok

Additional personnel includes: Miles Zander (acoustic & electric guitars, background vocals); Ian Zander (acoustic guitar, tiple); Arik Jenkins, Miles Nielsen, Tim Roe, Greg Wititson, George Wulf (acoustic guitar); Art Alexakis (guitar, background vocals); Billy Corgan, Slash (guitar); The Rockford Symphony String Quartet (strings); Tod Howarth (keyboards, background vocals); Jon Brant (bass); Randy Rainwater, Ed Bogdonas (drums); Jonathan Marks, Daxx Nielsen, Robin Taylor Zander (percussion); Holland Zander, Harlem High School Choir (background vocals).

Engineers: Timothy Powell, Skinner Ways, Kathy Yore.

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander (vocals, guitar); Rick Nielsen (guitar); Tom Petersson (bass instrument); Bun E. Carlos.

Personnel: Miles Nielsen (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar); Tod Howarth (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Art Alexakis (vocals, guitar); Holland Zander (vocals); Billy Corgan (guitar); Tim Roe, Ian Zander, Greg Wititson, George Wulf, Miles Mielsen (acoustic guitar); Mike Beert (viola); Bun E. Carlos (drums); Jonathan Marks, Robin Taylor Zander (percussion).

Audio Mixer: Harry Witz.

Audio Remasterer: Jim Beeman.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Ian Zander; Josh Hazelbauer Wetter; Phantom Regiment Legion Drum And Bugle Corps; Acoustic Guitar Army; Rachel Handlin; Renee Baker.

Cheap Trick: Robin Zander, Tom Peterson, Rick Nielson, Bun E. Carlos.

Additional personnel: Slash (guitar); Billy Corgan.