No, Cheap Trick still isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- a grievous oversight in my book. The group is, however, playing the second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Benefit Concert May 1 at Cary's Booth Amphitheatre (which we can only hope will be less contentious than the 2008 model). Georgia Satellites and Atlanta Rhythm Section are among the other acts on the bill. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Also in a similar vein is the "Experience Hendrix" tribute show that plays Durham Performing Arts Center on March 28. Joe Satriani, Robert Randolph, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and a bunch of other hotshot guitarists will hold forth.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Until the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Cheap Trick, it just don't count. Seriously. Few bands have been as influential, and "I Want You To Want Me" still sounds fabulous on the radio even after three decades of saturation-level radio airplay.

Fortunately, Cheap Trick's members seem unfazed by this and continue to soldier on, even playing gigs that seem beneath them (such as opening for Def Leppard and Poison in Raleigh tonight). Then again, not much fazes them by now -- going back to one particularly memorable early-days gig in Wisconsin.

"This Indian guy came in and staggered around," guitarist Rick Nielsen recalled in a recent interview. "We got off for our break, and he was laying on the hood of a car in front of the place -- dead. And he was the only customer, too. We've had kids born at shows, too, out in the audience. Somewhere on the East Coast, these parents who had a kid at our show named it Zander Neilsen Litchfield. For real."

For more of Nielsen's ruminations on the band's four-decade career, see the interview in Friday's paper.

True, Cheap Trick is third on the bill that plays Raleigh's big outdoor joint on Aug. 7. But I'm still a lot more interested in them than the two bands that will follow that night. Check here for tour details -- including the identity of the rest of the bill, if you must know.

(Thanks, Bob.)