David White, drummer with L.A. mod band The Question, told us about his Cheap Trick experience...
David White: I’ve had a lifelong love affair with music. By the age of twelve my tastes were all over the place—jazz, funk, folk, R&B, bluegrass, classical—but when it came to rock I gravitated mostly to the Big Dogs: Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin. At that age, however, there was also one guilty pleasure I couldn’t resist. Like most of my peers I was sucked inexorably into the alluring dark comic-book circus of KISS, a band whose individual identities were the subject of frenzied speculation. Their combination of awe-inducing aesthetics and hard arena rock proved uniquely irresistible to a kid still straddling childhood and puberty.
Consequently, that spring my first concert was Kiss at the Los Angeles Forum (with some band I didn’t know or care about opening). My best friend Graham’s parents had somehow secured seats incredibly close to the stage. We got there early, overwhelmed with anticipation of a deafening, full-tilt hard rock extravaganza. Delaying our bliss, of course, was the opening band. They were called Cheap Trick, and neither of us had heard of them. When they stepped on stage, my skepticism only grew. We sat right in front of the lead guitarist, who was dressed in a skinny suit replete with bowtie and propeller cap, shooting thumbs-up to the audience like some nerd reject from an Archie comic. Then there was the drummer, a slovenly, slightly chubby cigarette smoking shop clerk. While the other two members looked cool, the whole thing seemed ridiculous. They hadn’t even started and I already wanted them off the stage.
But then: the loudest, most aggressive guitar-chunking started, it blew my hair back. And strangely enough it was coming from Nerd Man himself! The lead-singer blared into the mic: “Hello there ladies and gentlemen!/Hello there ladies and gents—are READY TO ROCK?” And with the word ‘rock’ all three guitarists hit the two most powerful chords I’d ever heard. I looked at Graham and he looked at me: What the hell is happening? The song fully kicked in, more aggressive and ballsy than anything KISS ever did, and I was hooked. The rest of their set was awesome, song after song of garage rock-inspired power chords, fantastic melodies, a touch of organic messiness. I still enjoyed KISS afterward, but it was Cheap Trick who I couldn’t stop talking about in the following days.
In the next few years, I discovered punk rock, alternative and power pop. Bands like The Jam and The Clash became my new favorites. And over the decades I’ve seen hundreds of bands I like more than Cheap Trick—bands that are perhaps more ‘historically significant.’ (Occasionally I’ve even been lucky enough to open up for a few of them.) But when it comes to live rock, I’ll never have a second chance at a first impression, and while initially that impression was misleading, it ultimately changed my life. That night I learned to never judge a book by its cover. Wait for it to open up and rock.
The Question's "Shall Be Love" is out now.
