Pinky- thanks for an entertaining post about the show.
I have some disagreements with some of your comments, however. If you know Cheap Trick well- and it seems like you do- then you know that, when they do a cover version of a song, they find a way to both do a respectful cover but still make it their own song.
Look at their recorded versions of Ain’t That a Shame, Don’t Be Cruel, California Man and even Magical Mystery Tour and Day Tripper.
The LA Philharmonic could have gotten the Fab Faux, Strawberry Fields, Rain or one of the other note-for-note cover bands. Instead, they got Cheap Trick. For my money- a much better option! In so many of their original songs, you can hear the Beatles influence, particularly in the use of harmony.
As for Robin singing both John and Paul’s parts, Robin is still the “man of 1000 voices” and I thought he had no trouble at all doing both parts.
Billy Corgan- whether you love him or hate him- was used perfectly Saturday night. He was spot on for the two songs he sung. The Gomez guy, Ian Ball, seemed uptight the first song he sung but was much better after that.
And, having seen Cheap Trick 6 times previously, I loved seeing Rick at the keyboards and singing a little lead vocals on the start of “World’s Greatest Lover”- that was a first- and a very pleasant surprise!
Not sure if you knew this, but that song was the only Cheap Trick song that George Martin included on his large compilation CD collection of works he produced (he chose it over “Stop This Game”). So there was relevance for including it in the show.
And I thought Rob Laufer (the “Beatlemania guy”) was excellent.
I love Surrender, too, but I will catch them doing that later this summer, with Heart and Journey.