Disco de Cheap Trick: “Music for Hangovers”

Finally I've got the album and it is the best Live-album I've ever heard ! (At second best of course "At Budokan"). The greatest one on this album is with no doubt: Oh Caroline. But the whole album is very "HOT". Aint that a shame MFH is not available in Holland!

Greetings and keep on Rockin' with CHEAP TRICK

This review is as much a recommendation to see them live as it is a review of Music For Hangovers, their 2nd live release. Recorded in a club over 4 nights, this shows 100% that Cheap Trick may be the best live band of all time. Still. These 4 guys are one of the rock's 2 ageless wonders (Neil Young being the other one). Don't think for a minute because they no longer top the charts with their releases that this band is a tired old dinosaur, running through perfuntory, lifeless retreads of their most obvious songs. I saw them in 1980, and I've seen them twice in the last 7 months, and they are BETTER now then they were then, and Hangovers is living proof. All you have to do is drop the laser on Gonna Raise Hell, and marvel at the fury. Buy 2 copies of this NOW, give one to a friend, and then take them to see Cheap Trick. You'll walk out of the hall hoarse from singing, drenched in sweat, and with a nice loud ringing in your ears. Isn't that what rock n' roll is supposed to be all about?

As a lucky attendee of the four-night Metro shows from whence this gem of a CD was mined, cut, and polished, I can attest that they did a great job of capturning the energy and power of those shows.

Let me sum it up like this - when a song named "Gonna Raise Hell" can leave a 38 year-old man in tears, you still got it. Bun E and Tom definitely steal the show for this bring-the-house-down finale - a rolling wall of thunder you'll hear nowhere else.

I think the disc sounds just great. I've heard comments about some of the songs sounding muddy, or tinny. Rick Nielsen once said that producers don't understand that we (Cheap Trick) actually like to sound a little bit off. Well, if this is off, hey it works for me! I love the sound - it's raw, it's hot, it's heavy, it's Cheap Trick at their live best.

Music For Hangovers is the next best thing to being there, and proves that the boys can still 'bring it'.

Nothing can compare to being in the same room with Cheap Trick and a hall full of fans...but this comes pretty close. The song selection works so very well, and the energy is great. I attended the shows these songs were culled from, and I have to say that the disc captures the spirit of the shows (which was absolutely incredible!). The band is still in top form. In some ways, better with a few years under their belt. Listen to Rick's guitar magic. Ride Bun E.'s rolling drums. Let Tom's bass engulf you. And soar with Robin's angel/devil voice.

It may be fashionable, in some circles, to mock Cheap Trick and their fans, but attend just one of their concerts (or at least start with this album), and let the conversion begin!

(A repost of an earlier review)

In 1979, just out of high school and a steady diet of Jethro Dull, Floyd, Airplane, Hendrix et al, three new bands virtually revolutionized the way I listened to Rock and Roll: AC/DC, Blondie and Cheap Trick via "At Budokhan"...and in the last twenty years I havent stopped listening to Budokhan in its various incarnations...truly the best thing since transistor radios. Now, with "Music for Hangovers" the thrill is back all over again...and yes it is LOUD!!!. The Trick is definitely tight, Carlos one of the most urgently rock steady drummers around and Nielsen's guitar is surprisingly minimalist (compared to Budokhan). My CD programmer helps me make a great CD phenomenal by placing "Dream Police" at the beginning and cutting "Taxman" altogether to avoid that ludicrous introduction of Billy Corgan at the end of the track. The back to back performaces of "MandoCello" and the haunting jazzy/samba "Oh Caroline" alone are worth the price of admission, and the finale of the relentlessly hypnotic "TV Violence" and the jammin' "Gonna Raise Hell" are the proof in the pudding that some things just get better with age, two renditions to stand and last along with "Need Your Love" from Budokhan. Missed "the Flame", but otherwise Ive been playing this one forward, backward and upside down for well over a week. Thanks Robin,Bun,Tom and Rick for at long last authorizing another great live "classic" record!