Silver [live]

by Greg PratoOn 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 Budokan (widely regarded as one of the greatest live rock albums of all time), Silver shows that the band is still having fun on stage 25 years later.