ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Let's start with an assumption.
Few, if any, people in the largely older crowd who were in the grandstand on Allentown Fair's opening night — or waited 40 minutes as a storm that blew through the fair delayed the show (more about that later) — came looking for surprises or musical nuance from two bands whose last hits were in the 1980s.
They came, it's safe to say, to bask in nostalgia and try to relive some of their youth.
So when Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander's voice — or, to a lesser extent, that of Blue Öyster Cult's two singers — didn't quite measure up to what they were 40 years ago, it wasn't that big of a deal.
Or, when Zander's son Robin Taylor Zander, instead of his father, sang "Downed" (quite well, actually), or when Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Daxx Nielson, who replaced original drummer Bun E. Carlos, played a minutes-long drum solo, it also wasn't a big deal to the audience.
The crowd was there to hear the hits of their younger years and — for the most part — got what they wanted.
A quick note about the storm: After Blue Öyster Cult's opening set, the fair announced on its public address system that a thunderstorm was coming and urged people to find cover for 30 minutes. (Lightning was visible in the distance).
The delay actually lasted about 40 minutes, during which most of the crowd of less than 5,000 seemed to find cover in the grandstand.
Another note: The smaller crowd might be attributable to the fact that the Cheap Trick/Blue Öyster Cult show came together quickly after 1970s rockers Heart postponed their show.
Keeping 'The Flame' alive
Cheap Trick, with Zander in glittery silvery pants and a straw top hat, immediately won the audience by opening its 15-song, 90-minute set with one of its bigger hits, "Dream Police," and it was nicely done.
Perhaps accounting for the delay, the band plowed through the first five songs — starting with "Just Got Back" from 1980 and "Big Eyes" from the 1979 "Live at Budokan" album that put the band on top.
It was on the latter song that the constraints in Zander's voice first showed, but after running through "Out in the Street," its theme song to the early 2000's sitcom "That '70s Show," Zander started "Need Your Love" in a falsetto.
After the aforementioned drum solo, and a guitar solo by Nielsen, the band played another hit, its 1979 cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame," with Nielsen on slide guitar.
That song, and others during the night, seemed to rock harder than the original versions, when Cheap Trick was presenting them in a carefree new wave style. It occasionally still found that vibe, such as on a fun and irreverent "She's Tight," though Zander's voice again seemed diminished.
A couple of surprises during the night: the new song "Light Up the Fire" from its latest album "In Another World," was good, and the crowd seemed to embrace it.
And Robin Taylor Zander's turn on "Downed" sounded very much like the young version of his father, and it, too, captured that old energy.
So did "I Know What I Want," on which bassist Tom Petersson took a turn singing.
The set's highlight was Cheap Trick's biggest hit, 1988's "The Flame," which started with a snippet of "It All Comes Back to You" that was very nice and set the stage.
It was perhaps the song on which Zander's vocals most came up short, but also in which he seemed most vested, giving a heartfelt performance.
The main set closed with Cheap Trick's 1979 gold hit "I Want You to Want Me," which gave the crowd just what it wanted.
The encore opened with the song that started it all for Cheap Trick — 1978's "Surrender," and it, too, pleased the crowd. The band closed with its usual departing song, "Good Night."
But for as much as Cheap Trick seemed to know what the crowd was looking for, it skipped its second-biggest hit — it's cover of Elvis's "Don't Be Cruel," which hit Top 5 in 1988.
'Best years have passed us by'
Perhaps it was because its set was more condensed (seven songs in 36 minutes; perhaps it was trying to beat the storm) but Blue Öyster Cult seemed to connect better.
It opened with "Dr. Music," an upbeat rocker on which guitarist/vocalist Buck Dharma played a nice solo, and quickly followed by the 1982 double-platinum hit "Burnin' For You," to which the crowd responded loudly.
After the deeper cut "ME 262" (which also got a healthy cheer) the group played "Harvest Moon" — a slower, more thoughtful cut — just as the sun set.
Guitarist Eric Bloom then warned the crowd, "I think I hear gigantic footsteps coming this way," and the band kicked into its 1978 platinum hit "Godzilla."
Then, barely skipping a note, it dove into its biggest hit, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." The six-times-platinum hit now is nearing 50 years old, but it's still a great song, and the band played it well, even extending it a bit.
And as if a wink to the song, a breezy wind kicked up just around the time the lyrics talked about how, "the door was open and the wind appeared/The candles blew and then disappeared/The curtains flew and then he appeared... saying don't be afraid."
But perhaps the song that best captured the night was Blue Öyster Cult's second song, "Golden Age of Leather."
Bloom introduced it as a song for "a warm summer night at a rock show," and its lyrics "Raise your can of beer on high/And seal your fate forever/Our best years have past us by" couldn't have better described what the crowd was seeking.
And they seemed to get it, cheering loudly.
