Cheap Track - Star Plaza, NYE

Cheap Track live at the Star Plaza Theater, New Year's Eve 2000!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Cheap Trick's favorite tribute band, all the way from Tokyo, Japan, CHEAP TRACK!!"

Japan's best Cheap Trick tribute band, was asked by Cheap Trick to open for their New Year's Eve show at the Star Plaza Theater in Merrillville, Indiana. I was Cheap Track's "tour manager," as I was in charge of getting the amps and drums for the band (kudos to Greg at Rockhaus for the excellent gear!).

On new year's eve day, I rented a ten-foot long cargo van, loaded up the gear and went to O'Hare to pick up the band - luckily the weather was decent so driving wasn't a problem. The problem was squeezing 6 Japanese, their luggage, roadcases and guitars into the already full van. Since this was a cargo van there were only two seats so the band sat on the floor and speaker cabinets. After a quick stop at Burger King, where Track vocalist Tokyo Zander decided to rename the van, we made it to the Star Plaza Theater and loaded the gear into the backstage area. Cheap Trick's equipment was already on stage. Track guitarist Mitsuru and Tokyo Zander went to check out Rick Nielsen's amps, those old and well traveled Sound City cabinets. Later Tokyo Zander and Kinko went to check out their dressing room.

Cheap Trick's soundcheck was scheduled soon after we arrived and Rick came by to say hello to Cheap Track - and for the rest of the soundcheck, he kept shouting, "CHEAP TRACK!" Tom, Robin and Bun E. also stopped by to visit before they did "Oh Candy" for soundcheck and then worked on the new song they were going to play that night, "She's Alright."

As the Trick techs attended to final details for the show, Cheap Track got ready for their soundcheck. In the backstage area Mitsuru tuned up his Les Paul, Kinko and a friend got ready and later Shige joined them to work on his drums. Eventually we got Cheap Track's backline set up on stage and Mitsuru amazed the Trick techs by playing Rick Nielsen riffs perfectly. Smakutus Jeff made a really cool bass drum head for Shige - with a hand-drawn "Cheap Track" logo and Shige's name in Japanese katakana. Here are some of my photos from their soundcheck:

Shige on Drums

Kinko on Bass

Cheap Track

Tokyo Zander and Mitsuru

Shige, Tokyo Zander, Mitsuru and the Soon to be Packed Star Plaza Theater

Mitsuru, Tokyo Zander and Shige

At exactly 9:50 pm, Cheap Track rocked the Star Plaza with "Just Got Back" sung entirely in Japanese. In fact all the songs that night were sung in Japanese. Here is their set list. Bun E. was stage left watching the show, Rick was stage right and Robin and Tom also came out of their dressing rooms to see a bit of the show.

Here are my concert photos:

Mitsuru, also known as SUSHI MAN

Tokyo Zander (Reading "Oh Candy"?)

For even more excellent photos of their show check out Kim Gisborne's website and Junko's website.

By 10:30 Cheap Track was done and they went up to their dressing room to have some pizza and relax. Much later we loaded up the "cheap truck" in the icy chill of the wee hours, and then after a only few hours' sleep we climbed back into the van to head back to O'Hare. But first I got a couple of photos of Cheap Track in the snow.

Many thanks to Carla, George, Lee and of course Cheap Trick! You are all the best.

-Ron Faiola

PS - I will post more photos when I get them from Mitsuru.

Also, check out my photos from Cheap Trick's 1998 tour of Europe: Melkweg, Amsterdam ~ Rock Vlaanderen, Gent ~ Rock City, Nottingham. And my Cheap Trick Japan Tour 1999 photos and diary.

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