A Cheap Trick tour of Rockford

People from around the world, who couldn’t place Rockford on a map, know it’s where Cheap Trick is from. The most famous rock band to come out of Northern Illinois formed in 1973. They’ve since played more than 5,000 shows and released 21 studio albums, four of which have gone platinum. Yet Cheap Trick’s best-selling and best-known release was 1978’s triple-platinum live album At Budokan. Two of the four founding members still call Rockford home. And as of 2026, Cheap Trick is still on tour with three of the four original members, outlasting contemporaries like Aerosmith and Kiss.

Here’s an 11-stop Cheap Trick tour of Rockford.

Mary's Place

Guilford High School

Coronado Theatre

Hard Rock Casino Rockford

The Music Box

Stockholm Inn

Rockford Armory

Rockford Billiard Cafe

Midway Village Museum

Sinnissippi Park Music Shell

Davis Park at Founders Landing

Guilford High School

Guilford High School is to Cheap Trick fans what Forest Hills High School in Queens is to fans of The Ramones or Simon and Garfunkel. Three-quarters of both the current and original lineups attended Rockford’s Rock and Roll High School. The exception is Robin Zander, who was born just across the Illinois border in Beloit, Wisconsin and attended Harlem High School in Machesney Park, Illinois. That’s the same Harlem High School, whose choir performed with Cheap Trick at their 25th-anniversary show in Rockford.

Rockford Billiard Cafe (the former Stardust Lounge)

On the inside, there’s definitely a sense that this is the type of building you play on your way up. And that’s what Cheap Trick did a half-dozen times as far back as July 1974. According to setlist.fm, they were playing mostly covers, with the exception of “Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School,” one of the standout tracks from their debut album, which has only made it into their setlist a handful of times since 2020. You can see the February 28 and March 1, 1975 shows listed on a 1975 tour flyer.

Sinnissippi Park Music Shell

Cheap Trick’s history at the Sinnissippi Band Shell predates what the world now knows as Cheap Trick. Fuse (which included Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson played this small outdoor amphitheater in 1969, while Cheap Trick played a show here on May 11, 1975 (Mother’s Day). The set, according to setlist.fm, included a few songs that would end up in the first two albums.

Rockford Armory

While the shell of the Rockford Armory is still there, nothing appears to have been done with it since it was donated to the city back in 2006. You can listen to Cheap Trick’s October 8, 1977 show (just one month after In Color was released) at the former Illinois National Guard Armory on YouTube. They also opened for Rush at this same venue on November 13, 1976, six months after 2112 was released and just three months shy of their eponymous debut album’s release.

Coronado Theatre

This 2,310-capacity atmospheric theater dates back to 1927. Rick Nielsen helped raise money for the $18 million restoration, which took place between 1998 and 2001. Since the reopening, Cheap Trick has played the Coronado a handful of times. Most notable are the two nights between Christmas 2001 and New Year’s Day 2002, where they played very different sets each night. All seats are red velvet except for Upper Balcony seat 13 in row NN, which is instead Rick Nielsen’s trademark black-and-white checkerboard.

You can request a tour online. Be sure to ask to see the scrapbook, which has pages of cutouts related to Cheap Trick.

Coronado Theatre Rockford by Brian Cicioni

Stockholm Inn

This slice of Scandinavian culture in Northern Illinois is owned by a group of investors known as ‘The Lingonberry Group.’ One of those investors’ life-sized photos looms large at the entrance. He plays guitar for Cheap Trick and is pointing to the Inn’s signature Swedish pancakes with a side of Lingonberry sauce. You can’t miss Rick Nielsen with a black hat, cool shades, a skull ring, and a blue-and-yellow Swedish flag guitar hanging on the inside wall, showing you the one item you need to try here. The pancakes are super-thin, and the lingonberry sauce is good enough to take home as a souvenir. There are different jars for sale in the souvenir shop that should remind anyone who has been to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, of what you find in stores attached to the Amish country smorgasbords.

Besides the Rick Nielsen photo, the only other item on display at the Stockholm Inn hinting that you are not in Scandinavia is the Chicago Cubs flag that hangs from the dining room ceiling.

Davis Park at Founders Landing

While under construction as of 2026, Davis Park is where Cheap Trick played their 25th anniversary show in Rockford. The August 28, 1999 show was released a couple years later on CD and DVD as Silver.

The adjacent former Zlock Building, which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, has since been converted into the Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront. It’s an ideal place to stay if you want easy access to the walkable downtown area. The rooftop bar and restaurant with views of the city is also a nice bonus.

Embassy Suites is part of the Hilton brand. You can earn up to 100,000 bonus points by signing up for the no-annual-fee Hilton Honors American Express Card and spending $2,000 within the first six months. That’s enough for a free night or two at most Hilton properties, including the ones in Rockford.

Midway Village Museum

If you’re visiting Rockford for the first time, the Midway Village Museum is a good place to start. It’s a local history museum that features two items that make it a must-visit stop on any Cheap Trick tour of Rockford. First, there’s the small Rick Nielsen sock monkey encased behind glass. Sock monkeys were invented in Rockford and are still a popular souvenir. But the more intricate of the two is the human-sized Cheap Trick sock monkey statue, courtesy of Jane Hooker (Tom Petersson’s sister). It’s super-intricate to the point where you’ll need to spend a few minutes looking at it from all angles. The eyes and nose are guitar picks, and there are various Cheap Trick-related newspaper clippings. And this sock monkey statue has a long checkerboard tail.

The Music Box

As fun as it can be to look at historic buildings that once housed legendary concert venues and imagine what it must have been like to hear songs like “I Want You to Want Me” years before they found their way onto playlists worldwide, no Cheap Trick tour of Rockford is complete without visiting an active concert venue where band memorabilia adorns its walls. Singer-songwriter Kelly Steward and her husband, Miles Nielsen (Rick’s oldest son), are part-owners of The Music Box. It’s an intimate concert venue with a bar, a handful of tables, and more than a dozen framed gold and platinum Cheap Trick albums along the wall, including the lesser-known, but possibly best from start to finish, One on One.

On March 24, 2026, Nielsen and Steward did A Night of Cheap Trick Songs with Miles & Kelly. You can find clips of “Downed,” “Just Got Back,” and other classics on YouTube.

Mary’s Place

Mary’s Place is Rockford’s oldest bar. Tuesdays and Thursdays are open stage nights. The mural on the building’s south side, which includes a Bun E. Carlos headshot on a bass drum with his signature mustache and cigarette dangling from his lips, makes this an essential stop on any Cheap Trick tour of Rockford. Bun E. Carlos and The Monday Night Band have played Mary’s Place multiple times, including as recently as early 2026. So if you’re planning to visit Rockford, it’s worth checking the venue’s calendar.

Hard Rock Casino Rockford

The Hard Rock Casino is the closest thing Rockford has to a dedicated Cheap Trick museum. Consistent with Hard Rock locations around the world, the bulk of the collection is made up of outfits and guitars. But as this is Rockford, most of the collection is dedicated to Cheap Trick (Rick Nielsen in particular). Rockford’s first family is among the investors.

Around the bar, you’ll see framed guitars and outfits from At Budokan-era to The Doctor. And then there are the hidden gems you have to LOOKOUT for. Those include Cheap Trick slot machines (no video or photography allowed) and the items that line the hallway leading to the concert venue (a stage that Cheap Trick has yet to play on as of mid-2026). There’s framed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction memorabilia and more Rick Nielsen outfits, but the highlight for fans is the hand-written lyrics to “Surrender,” one of three songs you’re almost guaranteed to hear Cheap Trick play every night, even if they are an opening act and limited to a 45-minute set.

The property is convenient for those driving from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, as it’s barely an hour by car in normal traffic. There’s also an adjacent hotel in the works, which, if approved, could make Rockford even more of a destination for Cheap Trick fans.

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