On the other hand, however, there were years of (at best) mediocre records and lame attempts to stay relevant with changing trends.  At times they’ve come across as dated or even desperate, grasping at the fame they had after At Budokan.  If you only remember The Flame, you might wonder what all the fuss is about.

Whichever side of the Trick-Fence you fall on, you have to admit that they have at least continued on – working hard and touring incessantly over the years, playing fairs, clubs, rib-fests, arenas (as support for Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe and Pearl Jam) and more recently….casinos.  They have ALWAYS been a fantastic live band.

Last week Cheap Trick made their second appearance in recent years at Sound Board – the “club” venue at the Motor City Casino.  The venue isn’t bad – for a casino.  It’s a little sterile, but comfortable, with good sight lines and decent sound.  After a short set by the unanimated, forgettable, active-rock opening band, and an even shorter intermission, Cheap Trick took the stage to their standard Hello There before launching into Elo Kiddies from the 1977 debut.  Drummer Daxx Nielsen (guitarist Rick’s son, filling in for the iconic Bun E. Carlos who has not toured with the band in years) and bassist Tom Petersson were locked in all night – providing the back-beat for Nielsen’s great pop songs.  The 80+ minute set stayed mostly focused on the first 4 albums – straying only with Out In The Streets – the Big Star gem also used as the theme for That 70’s show, and She’s Tight and If You Want My Love from 1982’s One on One LP – the latter of which ended with an awkward moment where Rick dragged the singer for the opening band out to help sing, only to leave him on mic, looking blankly at the band with no clue how the song went.

Besides the criminally underrated guitarist – Nielsen, Cheap Trick’s ace-in-the-hole is vocalist Robin Zander, who I would easily put up there with Steven Tyler at the top of working American classic rock singers.  Robin might not be quite as consistent in recent times as he has been over the past 35 years, but he can still make most singers half his age look like amateurs.  Only on the rarely-played Need Your Love from Dream Police did he sound less than 100% and even then his range and the energy behind his voice were impressive.  The highlight of the set for me was Can’t Hold On, another deep-cut that doesn’t see the stage often.  Any questions about this band’s ability to deliver can be laid to rest when that tune is brought out.

Cheap Trick wears a lot of hats – powerpop pioneers, retro-70s radio heroes, Beatlesque-rock-torch-bearers and goofball guitarist & drummer meets sexy singer & bassist, to name a few.  But I’ll put them up against most other bands on most other nights.  I’ve seen them a stupid amount of times, and I will go see them again. They still bring it, consistently true to their roots and great catalog.  Cheap Trick is the band you should take your kids to see. Again and again.

Cheap Trick live at Sound Board – Detroit – May 16, 2013

On this auspicious occasion, you can catch the duo along with James (bass) and Roger (drums) down at the Berkley Front tomorrow (Saturday) night. The whole thing kicks into gear starting at 9 p.m. With your $5 admittance fee you also receive a free copy of the band’s latest single Better Than Anything. In response to that title I say: “Fuck yeah you are!”

Happy birthday gang!

“We won’t know the full scope until the Department of Justice conducts an invasive search that undermines privacy,” explained the President, “Who knows…perhaps some of these ‘victims’ were colluding with the tornado? Giving out detailed planes of where to hit.”

Obama spoke as he and Attorney General Eric Holder sifted through garbage bags outside the apartment of an unnamed Associated Press reporter.

Obama and Holder hope the wiretaps, which will include private e-mails and phone records, might also reveal if anybody from a government agency had spoken with the tornado. While both men declined to comment one the full scope of the investigation, they hoped that the wiretaps would be conducted without warrants and be as legally questionable as possible.

“I like to use a very creative interpretation of the Constitution,” said Holder.

A thirst for power, money, and approval has caused President Obama to largely abandon campaign promises for more transparent government, instead seeking aggressive prosecution of government whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act.

Emergency workers continue to scour through wreckage in the hope of locating survivors. Following Monday’s disaster, at least 240 people are injured and 24 people, including nine children, are confirmed dead.

“If they’d been Pakistani we could just call them enemy combatants!” Obama joked, donning a Nixon mask and curling up under a tree with a bottle of scotch.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Lucas Hollow–Hospital Garden guitarist–announces, “We present…Mover!”

Flashbulbs fire in rapid succession. Hushed tones become a chorus of gasps.

It is immaculate.

Standing before us is a behemoth that would shame Michelangelo’s David. Standing nearly thirty feet tall and chiseled from a combination of marble and granite, then coated in gold, Hospital Garden’s master stroke is a brilliant display of indie-rock. 11 songs jut at odd angles from the massive form. It is a humbling experience.

Suddenly, the scene erupts.

“Hospital Garden activate!” bellows Hollow.

The three rockers leap into the air, taking positions inside the statue.

It is like something out of Voltron! Mover creeps to life as Hospital Garden navigates the awakened beast from the factory and into the Chicago heat. Head-wagging, hip-shaking tunes burst forth. Our gaggle of journalists follow…totally awe-struck and dismayed.

When we reach the Mag Mile the band dispenses gift cards and we spend the afternoon shopping. The excitement has us a flutter. Even Lake Michigan is getting down.

Then, we get some ice-cream.

Well, friends, the winter of our discontent has violently birthed the summer of our collective heat-glazed maddening. As this wretched season looms oppressively, thoughts turn to the extinguishing of purity, goodness, life and innocence with the calloused hands of chaos hardened in the void, and…wait, I believe I lost my train of thought. What I meant to say, dear readers, is that another fun and action-packed weekend awaits us! Hope you’ve got your sunscreen ready, because here’s your guide to nonstop excitement in metro Detroit!

FRIDAY
Motor City Comic Con descends on Novi this weekend and will feature appearances by Marvel’s Stan Lee and stars of the “Boondock Saints,” plus more than a typical person’s share of costumed horseplay. If you’re the sort of person who enjoys the serenity of walking through a crowded convention center wearing blood-drenched coveralls and carrying a chainsaw still warm from recent use and not attract undue attention, this is your kind of event! (http://www.motorcitycomiccon.com/)

SATURDAY
When you spend a good deal of your time sitting alone in dark rooms, staring unblinkingly forward, chances are at least some of those hours are whiled away in a mainstream movie-torium. In one of those situations, the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” may have flickered before your lifeless eyes. If you retained any of its content, you may want to catch its star, Detroit musician Sixto Rodriguez, giving his biggest hometown performance to date at the Masonic Temple. (http://www.themasonic.com)

SUNDAY
My experience with symphonic music is limited to late-night sessions in which I try on my newest wigs and cavort across my veranda while Mozart provides the backdrop. However, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, in an apparent effort to reached the unwashed proletarian masses, is presenting a weekend-long tribute to the music of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, whose “Helter Skelter” in particular was of formative importance to me. (http://dso.org)

Chicago and Detroit are in love. So much so that they have a foreign exchange program for their short films. Christy LeMaster, director of The Nightingale (a microcinema in Chicago) is curating about an hour of Chicago’s finest influential and experimental films.

Cinema should only be taken in a dark room with rows of people facing the same direction. Without the interference of youtube ads, fast forwarding, and email notifications. Complete immersion between you and the electric shadows. Lose yourself and give your senses over to Chicago’s artists. It’s love.

WREST (2012) from Kent Lambert on Vimeo.

PROGRAM DETAILS: (58 minutes total)
Jodie Mack
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT (2011, 16mm transferred to video, 3m)

Alexander Stewart & Lilli Carré
CRUX FILM (2013, video, 5m)

Fern Silva
PERIL OF THE ANTILLES
(2011, 16mm transferred to video, 6m)

Jennifer Reeder
TEARS CANNOT RESTORE HER: THEREFORE I WEEP (2011, video, 10m)

Theodore Darst
STYROFOAM (2010, video, 3m)

Jessica Bardsley
LIE BACK AND ENJOY IT: A FILM ABOUT JOANN ELAM
(2012, 8mm & 16mm transferred to video, 8m)

Latham Zearfoss
HOME MOVIE (2012, video, 6m)

Monica Panzarino
MONICA PANZARINO SINGS THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER (2011, video, 4m)

Thorne Brandt
AGOD (2013, video, 5m)

Kent Lambert
WREST (2012, Super-8mm & 16mm transferred to video, 5m)

Jon Satrom
VELOCANIM_RBW_X-DEMO (2010, video, 3m)

Well it seems that after a solid month of erratic weather, spring has finally arrived in Michigan. Which of course means vastly improved “scenery” in every direction you look, if you know what I mean — right, fellas? (What I mean is ladies not wearing terribly much in the way of clothing.) However, if you’re anything like me, and you have some familiarity with the sexually prohibitive effects of, for instance, state-ordered chemical castration, you may seek indoor activities to distract you from the thought of what can never be.

So here’s my regular metro Detroit weekend roundup!

FRIDAY
If you’d like to step back from the void and give the demons something to momentarily distract themselves with, I highly recommend an evening of improv comedy. Throughout May, the Go Comedy! theater in Ferndale hosts sketch, stand-up and improvisational comedy performances several times a week. Start your weekend by seeing presumably well-adjusted individuals perform as if their very lives are at stake, which, who knows, maybe they are. (http://www.gocomedy.net/)

The Library seemed to be the epicenter of the evening. Phantom Cats opened up—fucking amazing as always. The mic couldn’t do Liz’s Fifth Element wails justice, but the magic was still there. For my money, the Phantom Cats are laying down the most dynamic, beautiful songs in town. Then—proving that at least some amount of thought was put into arranging the acts—Pewter Cub and the Pupils performed, respectively. Both bands have locked into what I believe Kenny Loggins fondly called “The Danger Zone”. I was really just glad to see that Dave had gotten out of that Ecuadoran prison in time to play with both groups.

However, the best two bands of the evening were found at opposing ends of the Woodward strip. The Fencemen, from Lansing, rocked out to a packed WAB. With no shortage of power, the band ripped it up. Want a string of adjectives to describe their performance, you say? How about this: their foreboding energy rattled the desperate air. My favorite part was their drummer. He has this great drummer face—it sort of switches between this look of intense concentration and a smirk that suggests he just considered the most diabolical act imaginable.

Then, over at Go Comedy, My Pal Val performed. It was one of those shows where you consider that perhaps a 3-day festival should be held where just My Pal Val plays. Where the Fencemen were intense, My Pal Val was fun—plaintive and cool. If Jimi Hendrix and the Pixies had a baby, it would listen to My Pal Val.

And what of this final night? Why—Odd Hours are playing. They hit the Library’s non-stage at 9:20. Anything after that is just a bonus.

You guys/ladies/other love Black Moth Super Rainbow so much we thought you’d like to see them for free! March 5/10 Magic Stick, all you gotta do is tell us your favorite bug (comment below or tweet @motorcityrocks). Winner (of ticket +1) will be chosen at random on 5/5 (at whatever time I wake up). Void where prohibited by law, yadda yadda.