Photos & videos by Matt Nielson
September 17th 2014, The Fairplex, Pomona CA: The 2014 edition of the annual LA County Fair is currently being held at the Fairplex in Pomona and is bringing the summer to an end with a rich range of festivities, which as always include a series of concerts. The rock ‘n roll offerings on the concert lineup most notably features four shows, with Styx having already played on September 12th, and Heart (9/26) and Earth, Wind & Fire (9/28) set to bring the fair to a grand finish in its final week. But last Wednesday, it was the turn of Cheap Trick and Kansas to rock the fair crowd with performances that gave their respective fan bases as well as the general audience plenty to cheer about. Our man Matt Nielson was in attendance to capture some photos and video footage for us.
According to Matt, Kansas sounded tight as a unit and their new vocalist/keyboardist Joe Platt who took over from Steve Walsh within the last month did a great job. Kansas overall played an excellent 45-minute set.
Video from this show of Kansas playing ‘Portrait’:
And then, Cheap Trick hit the stage to deliver an hour’s worth of rock with total energy from start to finish. Robin Zander’s voice was pitch perfect and guitarist Rick Nielsen was seen running around all over the place all the while he laid down those great leads. Some of the other highlights of the set included bassist Tom Petersson playing a nice little intro solo into ‘I Know What I Want’ and singing lead vocals on that track, and Rick Nielsen bringing out the signature 5-neck guitar for the closing number ‘Goodnight’.
Video from this show of Cheap Trick playing ‘Lookout’:
Cheap Trick ‘California Man’:
Based on Matt’s experience at this show and the band’s recent gig at the Forum opening for Boston, it’s safe to say that the ‘Trick has still got what it takes to rock the stage, and any and every rock fan is highly recommended to attend a show of theirs.
Set List:
01. Hello There
02. Elo Kiddies
03. Big Eyes
04. Ain’t That a Shame
05. California Man
06. Lookout
07. She’s Tight
08. I Know What I Want
09. That 70s Song
10. I Want You to Want Me
11. Dream Police
12. Never Had A Lot to Lose
13. Surrender
14. Goodnight
Check out a gallery of Kansas (1-7) and Cheap Trick (8-28) photos from the show below, and to view their downloadable versions or if you’re on a non-Flash device, click here: