UPDATE: I just now flipped back through their Facebook page and did find an expression of sympathy from Tom Petersson. So, there's that.
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One thing that recently occurred to me while following the news of the ongoing disasters in Japan: Where's Cheap Trick? If anyone ought to have a soft spot for Japan, it ought to be Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Bun E. Carlos and Tom Petersson. They were always a quality rock band with an enthusiastic following, but it was the release of the Live in Budokan album which catapulted them to the upper tiers of rock stardom. The squeals of those Japanese girls on that album were infectious, carrying them to huge success here in the States.
But, so far, the band has made no public expression of sympathy with the Japanese people. Neither in Google's news aggregator nor on the band's regularly updated website do I find any word from Cheap Trick on this disaster. They do mention Sendai, the city which was nearest the epicenter of the earthquake, but only in connection to some trivia contest they recently concluded.
There are no doubt plenty of middle-aged Japanese women suffering right now who have fond girlhood memories of screaming along at Cheap Trick concerts, can't the band spare a kind word for them? I hope this is an oversight on the part of their management company, and not representative of a genuine forgetfulness and lack of appreciation by the band itself.
