Peter Frampton and Cheap Trick brought their summer tour to the Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, NY on a perfect Saturday night.
CMAC has moved from a venue for orchestral concerts to a full on amphitheater for popular music. Where there was once a single concession area serving food and drinks, there is now multiple trucks and tents from a number of different vendors giving it a street fair vibe.
Cheap Trick gets the opening position on the tour and it was, unfortunately, their job to work out the problems with the sound system. The first three to four songs were a muddy mess but, as the set went on, the vocals and instruments finally started to come into balance, and it was a good thing as Robin Zander is still in fantastic form.
Zander was dressed up in a white uniform and hat, leading the band (sometimes literally) and nailing his vocals on every song. Meanwhile, Rick Nielsen kept the crowd entertained with a constantly revolving set of guitars including his famed five-neck model on the set closer, Goodnight.
A special acknowledgement should go to Nielsen’s son, Daxx, who is playing drums for the band, in for original drummer Bun E. Carlos who has not been playing with them since 2010 although the members still insist he is part of the band.
The set opened with four songs from the band’s first two album (Cheap Trick and In Color) which were also the openers on 1979’s Live at Budokan. Overall, eight of the ten songs from the Budokan album were included in the set.
After a bit of an extended break where, it appeared, there were some problems getting the keyboards in working order, Peter Frampton hit the stage and, like Cheap Trick, opened with music from his classic 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive including a surprise early playing of his signature hit, Show Me the Way.
Frampton is truly amazing both in his guitar mastership and his playing to the audience. The set was firmly in the 70’s with seven of the nine songs in the main part of the show from the albums Frampton’s Camel (1973), Somethin’s Happening (1974) and Frampton (1975), all of which were also part of Frampton Comes Alive. The only exceptions were his 1977 cover of Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) and his cover of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun from the album Fingerprints.
The singer/guitarist spent a good portion of the set in interplay with the members of his band whether it be guitar challenges or working back and forth with the keyboards. He even let members take singing duties on the first song of the encore, Humble Pie’s Four Day Creep.
Frampton closed the show with an electrifying performance of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Outside of the wonky sound at the beginning of the evening, the main complaint would be that Frampton’s set seemed a bit shorter than Cheap Trick’s and he left a few of his best known songs behind, most notably his highest charting hit, 1977’s I’m In You. Still, for the time he was on, it was a masterclass in guitar artistry.
The set lists:
Cheap Trick
Main Set
Hello There (from In Color, 1977 and Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Come On, Come On (from In Color, 1977 and Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Big Eyes (from In Color, 1977 and Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Lookout (from Cheap Trick, 1977 and Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Borderline (from Next Position Please, 1983)
On Top of the World (from Heaven Tonight, 1978)
Voices (from Dream Police, 1979)
In the Street (from Authorized Greatest Hits, 2000)
You’re All Talk (from You’re All Talk, 2001)
Baby Loves to Rock (from All Shook Up, 1980)
I’m Waiting for the Man (from Sex, America, Cheap Trick, 1996)
The Flame (from Lap of Luxury, 1988)
I Want You to Want Me (from In Color, 1977 and Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Sick Man of Europe (from The Latest, 2009)
Dream Police (from Dream Police, 1979)
Encore
Ain’t That a Shame (from Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Surrender (from Heaven Tonight, 1978 and Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Auf Wiedersehen (from Heaven Tonight, 1978)
Goodnight (from Cheap Trick at Budokan, 1979)
Peter Frampton
Main Set
Baby (Somethin’s Happening) (from Somethin’s Happening, 1974 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Doobie Wah (from Somethin’s Happening, 1974 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Show Me the Way (from Frampton, 1975 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Lines on My Face (from Frampton’s Camel, 1973 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) (from I’m In You, 1977)
(I’ll Give You) Money (from Frampton, 1975 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Baby I Love Your Way (from Frampton, 1975 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Black Hole Sun (from Fingerprints, 2006)
Do You Feel Like We Do (from Frampton’s Camel, 1973 and Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)
Encore
Four Day Creep (from Humble Pie’s Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore, 1971)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (from Now, 2003)
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