PHOTOS — Cheap Trick 2025 ⋆ Shows I Go To | 🎤 Florida Concerts, Festivals, & Giveaways

PHOTOS — Cheap Trick 2025

Cheap Trick • May 3, 2025 • Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL • Photos by Randy Cook — instagram.com/horns_raised

CHEAP TRICK LIVE REVIEW

May 3, 2025 | Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL
Review by: Randy Cook

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the opening of St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater, Cheap Trick delighted a sold out crowd with a twenty one song, ninety minute set. As part of the venue’s celebration local radio station 98.7, The Shark, was on hand with some of their on-air personalities hosting a pre-show party with prizes and a chance to win front row tickets for the show that evening. One highlight of that pre-show event was that one couple was introduced whose first date was forty one years to the day at a Cheap Trick show in Poughkeepsie, NY, and they are still together and many years happily married today.

As with all of the Shows I Go To, my eyes were on the crowd before the show and being Kentucky Derby day there were some in attendance who had been at race parties earlier. Sure made for an interesting mix and the crowd demographics were as I expected, hardly anyone under thirty it seemed, and mostly couples. With no opening band the show started promptly and lead singer (and local resident) Robin Zander stood front and center spotlights lighting him as the band begins the show with ‘Stop This Game’, a tune I did not recall of theirs, but with twenty studio albums and an additional four extended play releases, the band has a ton of material to work with upholding their mantra of ‘no two setlists are the same’. The first three songs I photographed ended in a flash and then I put my gear away and headed to my car to stow my gear as fast as I was able in order to get back to my seat.

Once I got to my seat I discovered I was sitting next to local concert going legend ‘Medicine Man’. A legend in his own right, we conversed in between songs about how great the band sounded and how deep in their discography the songs were going early in the set. This was my fourth time seeing Cheap Trick and I really enjoy the antics of guitarist Rick Nielsen, who, at age 76, is out there playing and looking like he is having more fun now than when he was younger. He made some funny quips in between songs, introducing a song as “…here’s a song off of one of our albums” and “…here’s a song we rarely do because we don’t know it very well.” With bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Daxx Nielsen keeping the band in rhythm, Robin’s son, Robin Taylor Zander also played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals on ‘Cry, Cry’ about three fourths of the way through the set.

Their Fats Domino cover of ‘Ain’t That a Shame’ had most everyone up on their feet and people dancing in the aisles. Shortly after that I was mesmerized by the hypnotic sound of ‘Need Your Love’ with its layering of instruments with a steady, pulsing bassline. Robin’s vocal delivery adds to the slow-burn structure of the song which I was not familiar with but was the musical highlight of the show for me this evening. As expected, when ‘The Flame’ started there was some love in the air it sure seemed for many couples in attendance, it was ‘their’ song, and the hits never stopped.
While the next three songs cross over into the encore I have to mention that one of my first thoughts whenever I hear the band’s name I always think of that part in the movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” where ticket scalper Mike Damone chastises a potential client for forgetting that he had Cheap Trick tickers for her:

“Can you honestly tell me you forgot? Forgot the magnetism of Robin Zander, or the charisma of Rick Nielsen?
How ’bout the tunes?
I want you to want me.
The dream police! Da-na-na-na-na-na
Your mama’s all right, Your daddy’s all right
They just seem a little bit weird”

Well, the band played those three songs in that order. ‘I Want You to Want Me’ segued into “Dream Police” to close out the show. The band came back for a three song encore opening with ‘Surrender’ and I figured it had to be in honor of! That is a question I would love to ask a band member if I were to ever get the chance as it is certainly not a pattern in their unique set lists order that I can tell.

It was a fantastic show, the band sounded crisp and clear. I saw nothing but happy faces as we filtered out to the lobby and the parking garage.

Cheap Trick setlist:
Stop This Game
Just Got Back
Radio Lover
Big Eyes
He’s a Whore
California Man (The Move cover)
Ain’t That a Shame (Fats Domino cover)
Boys & Girls & Rock N Roll
Need Your Love
Wrong All Along
High Roller
Cry, Cry (Robin Taylor Zander on vocals)
I Know What I Want
It All Comes Back to You
The Flame
I Want You to Want Me
Dream Police