POP MUSIC REVIEW : Fans Welcome Revival of Arena Rock

Arena rock died a horrible death in the ‘80s--and not a moment too soon. What killed it? Bands stopped rocking and became increasingly addicted to schmaltzy ballads.

Many apparently still mourn the passing of this middle-of-the-road rock, so when three fossils from the arena-rock heyday--Foreigner, Cheap Trick and Loverboy--showed up on Friday for the first of two nights at the Universal Amphitheatre, the place was packed with shrieking fans.

From a crowd-pleasing point of view, Foreigner’s set was a smashing success, but creatively it was a dud. The group, led by guitarist Mick Jones and singer Lou Gramm, is well-schooled in the nostalgia-circuit routine of giving the crowd a steady diet of familiar songs and not overdoing the new material (theirs isn’t memorable anyway).

Gramm still puts enough sexy oomph into such seductive, syrupy ballads as “Waiting for a Girl Like You” to send female fans into deep swoons. They played the rockers--”Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” et al.--pretty much by the numbers, without much improvisation or any surprises.

Cheap Trick, which got started in the mid-’70s, still plays power-pop that’s buoyed by Beatlesque harmonies and Rick Nielsen’s zesty guitar solos. It often soared beyond the limited realm of nostalgia-circuit music, but ultimately it was still arena rock.