Las Vegas Weekly

June 11, 2009 · 9:06 AM

Cheap Trick wants you to want them at the Las Vegas Hilton

By Robin Leach

Cheap Trick will be performing at the Las Vegas Hilton in September.

Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage

Cheap Trick has found a Las Vegas home at the Hilton. A formal press conference is scheduled for this morning to announce a series of special engagement concerts. They will perform in the Hilton Theater.

Cheap Trick members Rick Nielsen, lead guitarist, Tom Peterson, electric bass, Robin Zander, lead vocals and rhythm guitar, and Bun E. Carlos, drums and percussion, have been together since 1974 and still regularly go out on tour 35 years later. Their song “In the Street” was the theme for That ’70s Show, and their Baby Muggles is used as the theme of The Colbert Report.

The group’s performances are unrelated to Dee Snider’s occasional Monster Circus shows there, which will continue. They are still regarded as superstars in Japan, where they are referred to as “The American Beatles,” and their hits include “The Flame” and “I Want You to Want Me.”

Updated at 12:26 p.m.: Tickets will go on sale Saturday for the three sets of Cheap Trick performances at the Las Vegas Hilton. The band will perform Sgt. Pepper Live for nine nights Sept. 13-15, 17-19 and 21-23. The performances will feature special guests to be announced later and a symphony orchestra, audio production by Geoff Emerick and set design by Rene Lagler.

“One of America’s greatest bands ever, doing their live interpretation of this classic rock album, an album nobody believed could be performed outside the recording studio, sets a new standard for rock and entertainment in Las Vegas,” said Ken Ciancimino, executive vice president of the Las Vegas Hilton, at this morning’s press conference announcing the epic undertaking.

Producer Bill Edwards added: “We are going to make rock ’n’ roll history by incorporating this legendary American rock group with the music of The Beatles. This is a groundbreaking performance that everyone said couldn’t be done live, but Cheap Trick has perfected it.”

Tickets start at $65. Previous performances of Sgt. Pepper Live featuring Cheap Trick drew tens of thousands of fans for sold-out performances in Los Angeles, selling more than 53,000 tickets. Cheap Trick recorded the album All Shook Up in 1980 with Beatles associates Sir George Martin and Geoff, producer and engineer of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Vegas DeLuxe will post photos shortly of Cheap Trick at the Hilton conference.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter HERE.

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