Beatles' Sgt Pepper Show in Las Vegas is not just Cheap Trick

This is something I just had to see. Amidst all the 9-09-09 hype for "Everything Beatles" this live show could have gotten buried, which would have been a shame. Fortunately, Las Vegas is buzzing about it (Cheap Trick is on the cover of the latest Las Vegas magazine) and the reviews have been glowingly positive.

I had already seen Cheap Trick perform their Sgt. Pepper Beatles show at the Hollywood Bowl (with an orchestra there, too) in 2008- it was fantastic- but I wanted to see it in Las Vegas after they had a chance to really rehearse it and not just do a one-off. Also, to give an idea of the uniquness of this show, Cheap Trick has played approximately 5,000 performances over their long career. When this run ends, by my count, only 14 will have been the Sgt Pepper show- and I will have seen 3 of the 14. Not bad- compared to just seeing 9 of their other ~4,986 concerts. So I look at it as a thrice in my life experience.

As this seems to be the Season of 9 in the entertainment industry, they are playing 9 shows at the Las Vegas Hilton- the last of which will be Sept. 23rd. Please be aware that this is NOT a Fab Faux-type, note-for-note copy show (that, btw, is also in Las Vegas, as is the Cirque du Soleil Beatles' "Love" show which I saw in 2007 and can recommend more for the incredible sound and sights than the Cirque part). This show is Cheap Trick's way of doing other people's music- with their own edge to it, though they stay pretty close to the original intent (remember their hit single version of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel"?). In fact, they got Geoff Emerick (Beatles' producer George Martin's right hand sound man) to do the sound for these shows and I was lucky enough to be backstage and heard him say to Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander that their live show of Sgt. Pepper "makes the original album seem like a demo." I can't imagine higher praise than that!

And if you think, like I did, that Elton John would feel very comfortable in Rick Nielsen's suit (above), a Las Vegas reviewer teasingly stated that Robin Zander's outfit (below) would "start a tug of war between Elton John and Liberace" over it.

If you can't get to Vegas in the next week to see this show, there is still good news:

There is a DVD and CD available of them performing it (also with an orchestra, sitars and guest stars, etc.) last year at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. And the best news is all the proceeds from the CD and DVD sales are being donated to prostate cancer research.

I'd post a sound clip but MOG is telling me MP3 upoads are unavailable right now. So you can choose a clip from here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sgt-Pepper-Live-Cheap-Trick/dp/B002G1WPGI/ref=pd_bxgy_d_img_b

Both the current Las Vegas and last year's New York shows feature, in addition to an orchestra conducted by Edwin Outwater, guests Rob Laufer (who played George Harrison in "Beatlemania" on Broadway and is an incredible talent), Joan Osborne and Ian Ball (lead singer of Gomez)- who create great harmony together on "Drive My Car" in Las Vegas (alas, though both are on the CD/DVD- that song is not), guitarist Bill Lloyd, keyboard session man Magic Cristian, a half-dozen Indian musicians and another half-dozen members of a backing vocal choir round out the cast of dozens.

Yeah, I know this is somebody's homemade hand held video (shot at last year's Hollywood Bowl show) but it still gives you the idea:

As Rick Nielsen says, "Cheap Trick- accept no substitutes!"