Live preview: Cheap Trick's trick is to love playing music

A riot erupted after Cheap Trick's last Christchurch performance but they promise that's unlikely this time.

Cheap Trick say they’re still on tour after 40 years together because they ‘are too dumb to quit’.

Cheap Trick might be yet another veteran group on the international nostalgia circuit. But there is a difference, says frontman Robin Zander down the line from the US.

"A lot of classic rock bands are still on the road playing their hits. Unfortunately we didn't have that many hits," he laughs, "and we really love playing still. Until we get sick of that, I believe we are too dumb to quit."

The Illinois group dates back to 1973 and their commercial peak came a few years later with albums like Live at Budokan - their early albums had sold well in Japan but didn't raise much interest anywhere else - and 1979's Dream Police.

Those hit years brought them to New Zealand for some legendarily loud shows. The band slipped back a few divisions in the 80s, though they scored a number one hit, the power ballad The Flame in 1988.

Otherwise they've kept on going.

The sound has remained consistent throughout - exponents of Beatles-inspired 70s American power-pop with occasional hard rock urges. With that mix of melody and metal, it's little wonder that when Dave Grohl took his Foo Fighters on the band's Sonic Highways studio trek and series, when it came to Chicago, he roped in Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen to record Something For Nothing.

Cheap Trick have delivered 16 studio albums in their time, though they've had some troubles with record labels over the years.

And the band-up that is coming here isn't quite the classic lineup. Missing is drummer Bun E. Carlos who has been replaced by Nielsen's son Daxx. Carlos parted company with the band in 2010 setting off a flurry of suits and countersuits.

"Bun E. is at home at his hideaway resort relaxing and he's still getting a pay cheque. He is as happy as can be," says Zander side-stepping the legal troubles of past years.

"In this world that we live in, there are a lot of powers that be that live outside the band. Sometimes they get hold of things and take it to the nth degree."

Still, for 62-year-old Zander, the Neilsens and bassist Tom Petersson, the reason they're still on the Cheap Trick roadshow - and here playing with Billy Idol and the Angels - isn't that they didn't have enough hits for a comfortable retirement. It's because it's still fun.

"We are happy to be alive, are you kidding me? When we started the band we never thought we would last more than one or two months and here we are 40 years later still playing. I think it's a testament to the quality of who we are as musicians and who we are as performers."

Who: Robin Zander, frontman of Cheap Trick
What: Playing with Billy Idol and the Angels
When and Where: Vector Arena, tomorrow; TSB Bank Arena, Wellington, Thursday; Horncastle Arena, Christchurch, Friday.