The pace was also maintained throughout, except when the raffish Tom Peterson was allowed a bass solo slot before relieving Robin of the mike during ‘I Know What I Like’. Only that afternoon, after dragging my girlfriend secondhand CD shopping, she had snapped up their Greatest Hits on my recommendation, so it was a bizarre coincidence that a trio of tracks from it – ‘She’s Tight’, ‘If You Want My Love’ (even if Robin Zander’s voice sounded rather rougher-edged) and the ELO-like ‘Voices’ all found their way back into the set.

However this time they stuck to a tried and tested set, opening with Budokan favourites ‘Hello There’ and ‘Clock Strikes Ten’ before ‘Ain’t That a Shame’ and ‘California Man’ got substantial numbers to their feet dancing, unfortunately not where I was sat.

However I have tended to find their live shows rather enigmatic as they tend to shake up the setlist and dust off obscurities, even in environments such as this where a Greatest Hits type set is the most sensible option. However a first album in 11 years in Life, Love and Hope had encouraged the Boston spaceship to fly into orbit once more, and I was pointed in the direction of Albuquerque, in this perfectly sized outdoor amphitheatre (about 6000 seats, most with a perfect view) in the grounds of a casino taking its name from the Sandia mountain ranges that loom over the city from every angle.Īs a bonus there was a support band in Cheap Trick who in their own right were just as seminal as Boston in the late seventies, with a brand of power-pop which has influenced a whole generation of subsequent bands, and there is always something magical about their iconic band logo and chequered stage set. To catch the legendary band whose self-titled 1976 monster arguably invented the genre we know as AOR, you need to take the proverbial mountain to Mohammed.Įven in the USA they are a far less prolific touring act than most of their contemporaries, and despite my gigging stateside each year, it had been a long decade since I saw them live. In Boston’s own words ‘it’s been such a long time’ for UK fans who would need to be 50 or over to have seen their last shows here in 1979. Share the post 'Gig review: BOSTON, CHEAP TRICK – Sandia Casino Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, New Mexico USA, 22 July 2014'

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