"The main reason why they dazzled so many crowds is because they were (and still are) an explosively exciting rock band who’d honed their skills the Beatles-in-Hamburg way, playing four or five or six hours a night to drunk and/or indifferent audiences — and these four shows capture the end of that chapter. Recorded during a break in the sessions for their second album, “In Color” (which included the limp studio version of their first and biggest hit, “I Want You to Want Me”), a couple of weeks after these shows the group would begin a summer-long tour supporting Kiss, playing arenas on a nightly basis and getting even better (anyone seeking evidence should check here and here). After 1977, Cheap Trick would never be a bar band again." READ MORE