Nothing's cooler than posing on your motorcycles with the kick stand down, boys. Fortunately the music behind the sleeve rocks. The structure of "Hello There" comes from years of playing 3rd on bills without soundchecks - first guitar, then voice, drums and bass. Awesome stuff.
And I'm amazed at my good taste at age 13. "I Want You to Want Me" is a negligible throwaway, but "Big Eyes," "Downed," "Clock Strikes Ten," "Southern Girls," and "Come On, Come On" are perfect power-pop tracks. The album may not be as weird and subversive as the band's debut, but it's far more listenable -- the perfect introduction to Cheap Trick.
Usually a bands first album is the one that paves there way, however this 2nd album from the band is the best of all in my opinion .... Big Eyes, Clock Strikes Ten, I want you to want me .... This lp is loaded with great Cheaptrick hits ...
In the summer of 1977 I saw KISS at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles (when Alive II was recorded), and the opening act was Cheap Trick. I was 14, with my mom and dad and little sister, excited to be part of the "KISS Army." No one was there for Cheap Trick, but in spite of all the yelling for KISS, and the way they were squeezed onto a stage filled with KISS's extensive stage show gear, I thought they put on a great show. No fancy props beyond a wooden step that Rick Neilson would peel off the opening for "Clock Strikes 10" and his multi-necked Hammer guitar (along with his outfit) or Bun E. Carlos's giant drum sticks, but a great hard rocking set none-the-less. I bought this album shortly after, and was not disappointed. I thought "I Want You to Want Me" should be a huge hit, and was vindicated shortly after with "Budakon." I've loved this album for years, and still prefer it to "Budakon," though now that "Budakon" is here, I'd pick up the deluxe set of that too.
