In the span of one monumental weekend, the full arc of power pop’s evolution unfolded across the San Francisco Bay Area, from the intimate confines of Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre to the sprawling expanse of Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheater. It was a chance to witness two genre innovators hit the stage in top live concert form.
The Enduring Appeal
From The Who’s foundational innovation to Cheap Trick’s lifelong dedication, power pop’s appeal remains constant: it’s music for the sensitive stepchildren, the ones who crack crooked smiles even as the world devolves into chaos around them. The genre’s multiple bloodlines (punk, pop, rock, alternative) make it impossible to pin down, but you know it when you hear it.
And after this week of immersion, from arena farewell to intimate club show, one thing is clear: power pop isn’t going anywhere. The torch passed from The Who to Cheap Trick to countless underground heroes continues to burn bright.
The Who: Shoreline Amphitheater, September 21, 2025 — The Architects
Sunday night’s farewell tour stop at the 22,500-capacity Shoreline felt like watching living history, even if The Who haven’t been seen as a power pop band for over half a century. But that’s what made it interesting: here were the unwitting creators of a template that they had largely moved away from by the late ‘60s, now dipping back into those early gems that helped spawn a movement.
Opening with “I Can’t Explain,” the very song that arguably birthed power pop in 1964, The Who immediately established the blueprint that bands like Cheap Trick would spend decades perfecting. The crunchy opening riff and Roger Daltrey’s melodic punch contained all the DNA that would eventually course through everyone from The Raspberries to Redd Kross and Material Issue. Following it with “Substitute,” another mid-60s gem, the power pop connections were undeniable.
But it was the inclusion of “I Can See for Miles,” perhaps the most archetypal power pop song ever recorded, that really drove the point home. When Pete Townshend’s opening chords rang out across the amphitheater, you could hear the resonance that would inspire countless bands over the next six decades. The song’s perfect marriage of crunch and melody, its soaring harmonies and hook-driven structure, created the very definition of what power pop could be.
The setlist was heavy on mid-career material such as “Pinball Wizard,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” and the epic power ballad “Love, Reign O’er Me.” But when they returned to the power pop well with “My Generation” and the early-’80s throwback “You Better You Bet,” the connections were electric. The massive production values and arena rock spectacle served the Tommy and Quadrophenia material well, but those foundational power pop moments felt both timeless and slightly surreal, watching the originators perform the very songs that helped create a genre. All in all, this latest farewell tour feels appropriate: The Who created something very special, then went on to other pursuits, leaving others to carry the torch for decades to come.
Cheap Trick: The Guild Theatre, Menlo Park, September 19, 2025 — The True Believers
The contrast couldn’t have been starker. Just 48 hours earlier, at the 500-capacity Guild Theatre, Cheap Trick proved they’re still the genre’s most devoted stewards. While The Who moved on to rock opera grandeur, Cheap Trick grabbed the forgotten mid-’60s thread and made it their life’s work for over 50 years.
The intimate setting showcased just how refined their power pop craft has become. With a stripped-down setup, the four-piece (minus vocalist Robin Zander’s son, who often tours with the band on rhythm guitar and vocals) charged through a set that indexed heavily on deep tracks and an in-your-face attack. Opening with the trademark proto-punk assault of “Hello There,” the band immediately established they’re still mining the canon The Who helped define decades ago.
The 15-song setlist was a masterclass in power pop evolution, mixing signature crowd-pleasers with well-worn deep cuts. Following up with “ELO Kiddies,” a rarity from their first album, the band demonstrated their willingness to dig deep for the faithful. The Move cover “California Man” (a Roy Wood gem they’ve been championing for decades) showed their deep affinity for power pop’s extended family, while other debut album tracks like “He’s a Whore“ and “Taxman, Mr. Thief“ proved their catalog extends far beyond the hits. Rather than focus on extraneous stage banter and special effects, the band cut loose like a freight train through plateglass, raw and rambunctious, while still showcasing its sensitive side in spades on the power pop anthem, “On Top of the World.” Robin Zander’s vocals sounded even more potent in the Guild’s acoustically pristine environment.
Guitarist and chief songwriter Rick Nielsen was also in fine form. The eccentric presence and showmanship were still there (the multi-necked guitars, picks flying left and right), but underneath is a player who’s spent five decades perfecting the power pop formula, even if the occasional bum note or feedback screech surfaces. The one-two punch of “I Want You to Want Me” into “Dream Police” late in the set was brimming with energy, Robin Zander’s vocals soaring over Tom Petersson’s thunderous bass lines while Daxx Nielsen’s drumming brought the precision his predecessor Bun E. Carlos put into play decades ago. Another major aspect of Cheap Trick’s core sound, and power pop in general, are the killer harmonies, adding an emotional layer to the key refrains. This could not have been more evident in the band’s rendition of “Surrender,” the band’s timeless anthem of coming-of-age disillusionment.
The Guild Theatre show proved something important: power pop isn’t museum music. When the band launched into the aforementioned “Dream Police,” the energy was electric, the hooks as sharp as ever. Which brings us to All Washed Up, the band’s forthcoming November release. Based on the highly protected stream from the band’s camp, the album finds them still pushing the sound forward rather than just preserving it. Stay tuned for more on this upcomer.
The Underground Army: New Power Pop Comps Unearth Classic Cult Bands
While Cheap Trick eventually became power pop’s most visible torchbearers, they weren’t alone in carrying forward The Who’s varnished blueprint. Cherry Red’s new 3-CD compilation, I Wanna Be a Teen Again: American Power Pop 1980-1989, excavates the movement’s stateside underground, revealing an entire army of bands that also ran with that mid-60s template during power pop’s ’80s heyday.
Unlike my previous dive into the UK scene with New Guitars in Town, this American collection reveals a different side of the movement, one that was perhaps more rootsy than its British punk-pop cousins, but no less committed to the cause. The 75 tracks span the decade’s most fertile period, from post-punk power pop pioneers to the jangle pop explosion of the mid-’80s.
The set opens strong with The Plimsouls’ “A Million Miles Away,” showcasing the West Coast scene that would go on to be influential in later decades. But it’s the deeper cuts that make this essential: bands like The Nerves, whose “Hanging on the Telephone” became a later hit for Blondie, proving that power pop’s best songs often found their audience through other artists.
What’s most striking about this period is how these bands maintained power pop’s core DNA (the “lovable loser” perspective, the melancholic undercurrent, the bittersweet neurosis) while updating it for Reagan-era America. Whether it’s The Beat’s new wave-influenced “Rock & Roll Girl” or The Romantics’ garage-punk take on “What I Like About You,” these artists understood that power pop was the soundtrack of the underdog, both thematically and commercially.
The compilation serves as a reminder that while bands like Cheap Trick achieved mainstream success, power pop’s true heart has always been in these smaller scenes: scrappy bands recording DIY singles, hand-folding sleeves, and selling them at shows. Many of these tracks are now collector’s gold, fetching serious coin on sites like Discogs, but their real value is in preserving a movement that refused to die, even as musical fashions changed around it.
Speaking of contemporary tributes to power pop’s underground heroes, the small but mighty Big Stir Records has recently released Make Something Happen! A Tribute to the Flashcubes, celebrating Syracuse power pop quartet and cult faves The Flashcubes. Formed in 1977, The Flashcubes’ sound harkened back to the glory days of the mid-’60s UK scene, but infused a seamy punk edge into the mix (Think The Easybeats on a head-on collision with Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers). This killer comp features feisty ‘Cubes covers from marquee power pop luminaries like Graham Parker and Mike Gent, the Spongetones, Sorrows, the Kennedys, Chris von Sneidern, The Armoires, and the Verbs, proving that the genre’s influence continues to resonate across generations of musicians.
The album also includes three brand-new Flashcubes songs, showcasing that the all-original band is still a force with svelte hooks intact, as evidenced in the bouncy valentine to the sweet sounds of yore in “Reminisce,” or the infectious crunch of “The Sweet Spot.” It’s yet another example of how power pop’s extended family continues to honor and build upon the genre’s rich legacy, even as the music industry has moved in vastly different directions since its inception.
For questions, comments, or something you’d like to see, drop me a note.
