Cheap Trick still rockin' in theaters, amphitheaters

There are few bands from the hard-rockin' '80s that can still play arenas and amphitheaters today.

But this year, two of those bands decided to team up and hit the road together and bring another iconic band from the '70s with them for good measure.

Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick will all perform at the USANA Amphitheatre on Tuesday. Among them, they have sold millions and millions of records (including some of the biggest albums in history in Def Leppard's "Hysteria" and Cheap Trick's "Live at Budakon"), and they continue to perform before tens of thousands of fans each year.

While the members of Cheap Trick are the elder statesmen of the tour, there's is no slowing them down.

The legendary quartet from Rockford, Ill., that started in 1974, is still producing quality albums and continues to be one of the hardest touring bands in the world.

Cheap Trick still play in the range of 200 shows per year. Their most recent release is appropriately titled "The Latest." It's an album that in addition to CD, was released on vinyl and even 8-track.

"We're number one in the world in 8-track sales," said the always entertaining Rick Nielsen, baseball cap-wearing lead guitarist extraordinaire.

"We're never going to be the next new thing. ... darn it. We grew up in an era where (vinyl and 8-track) was clunky but cool. It's so wrong but right. That's like Cheap Trick anyhow. We're perfect but so flawed it's unbelievable. I was my parents' best kid and my parents' worst kid. We make albums; we don't make singles."

Starting Sept. 13, the band will begin a nine-night run in Las Vegas playing the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in its entirety, accompanied by a full orchestra. It's a show that the band first performed in 2007 with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Cheap Trick has been called the "American Beatles" in Japan and has worked with legendary producer George Martin in the past.

The Hollywood Bowl show was the perfect fit for the band, Nielsen said. The members didn't pretend to be a tribute band, so they didn't have to wear costumes or magically develop British accents on the way to the stage.

"We knew how to be faithful to the music but without trying to copy note for note and sound for sound," said Nielsen, who admitted he actually had to practice for the show. "I knew it in my head, but I never played the stuff."

One band member Nielsen knew he didn't need to worry about doing the Beatles justice was lead singer Robin Zander.