Their Production Will be Second to None, 4 out of 5 StarsCheap Trick has never shied away from their love of The Beatles. From the early cover of "Day Tripper" to making "Magical Mystery Tour" to lone new cut on their original Greatest Hits CD, Robin Zander, Tom Peterssen, Bun E Carlos and Rick Nielsen could knock 'em out like nobody's business. But to recreate the landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album as a live event, played from start to finish? That takes some Ernie Ball strings of steel.
The surprise is just how well Cheap Trick pulls this off. From the instantly familiar power of the opening chords to the fun Abbey Road encore medley, the band starts strong, works it hard and finishes solid. Guest performers Joan Osborne gives a twist to "Lovely Rita," and Rob Laugher channeling George Harrison for "Within You Without You" is one of many highlights here. The mandocello recreation of George's sitar here is jawdroppingly good.
The band and their pals all sound like they're having a blast doing this, but they're taking it dead serious, too. Geoff Emerick, The Beatles' original engineer, was brought in for the sound. The NY Philharmonic fleshes out the orchestral parts (along with Zander's vocals, you'll get goose bumps during "She's Leaving Home"). Almost all the musical intricacies of the original album are brought out (at least the ones that aren't sound effects, anyways), and Tom just flat-nails McCartney's bass parts. "Sgt Pepper Live" could have been a train wreck of pigpile proportions, but Cheap Trick makes it work. For a band that has long been out of the limelight (their 16th studio album, The Latest, is way better than you'd expect), "Sgt Pepper Live" avoids the pratfall of sounding like a cover band and shows that rock and reverence aren't always mutually exclusive.
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