20 Most Important Hard Rock Albums Of All Time
18. At Budokan - Cheap Trick
At the end of the 70's, things were looking pretty bleak for Cheap Trick. After a handful of great albums with lackluster sales, the band were in danger of being dropped by their label and falling into obscurity. Rather than go back into the studio, the band decided to roll the dice with a live album from Budokan and hit the jackpot.
It turned out that the excitement from the band's studio recordings was captured more clearly on the live stage, with the audience almost acting as an additional instrument. Across songs like "Hello There" and "I Want You To Want Me," you can practically feel the energy radiating off the stage that night in Japan, as the band tear through their set with Rick Nielsen's smoking guitar lines.
This album not only served as a great compilation of the band's greatest material, but it also showed a different outlet for hard rockers that didn't have to be bluesy chords. As opposed to bands like Zeppelin or Cream, this album was power pop with a capital POWER, with songs that could have you singing along while melting your brain. Cheap Trick may not have gotten very far after this, but without this album, we wouldn't have bands like Green Day or The Jam today.