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Album Details

• Artist: Cheap Trick
• Album: At Budokan: The Complete Concert
• Label: Sony
• Year of Release: 1978
• Original Release: 1998
• ME Rating: Indie Classic
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-01-21

This disc is the classic Cheap Trick album At Budokan with several tracks added to make it both representative of the whole performance and a two CD set. The original album came out in 1978, and this remastered and expanded work was released twenty years later. It is safe to say that Cheap Trick both defined and transcended the power pop genre. They combined (and continue to) catchy melodies, metallic leanings, Beatlesish arrangements and punk angst to produce a sound all their own. Indeed, it has been reported that, shortly before his death, John Lennon was asked what the Beatles would sound like if they were still together. He responded by saying that they would sound very much like Cheap Trick.

Listening to this album, it is easy to see how Cheap Trick influenced punk and thrash while calling neither home. They really seem to have been a very large influence on Jane's Addiction and others. Seen as a snapshot of a period of the band’s career, this is a fine album. The discs include well done CDrom functions including short interviews of each band member (Rick Nielsen, Bun E. Carlos, Tom Petersson and Robin Zander), two live videos and access to the web page (through an ISP).

While the original release contained only ten songs, here we get 19 songs. Basically, this album features all ten of those original songs plus nine that were originally released (along with three more) on an album called “Budokan II.” While one might think, from that description, that it means that the whole concert is not presented here, that’s not true. The three songs that didn’t make this set were actually from a different tour and therefore not part of this concert. Those who enjoyed the original live album will find that this is better because it presents more of the same, and a real, full concert experience. This is recommended to both hardcore fans of Cheap Trick and the more casual fans. While Trick is great on studio releases, there’s a different kind of magic present in live Cheap Trick settings, and this captures that very well.

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