Used to go see Cheap Trick almost every Saturday night during senior year of high school at Humpin' Hannah's and Someplace Else until freshman year of college when a show scheduled for IIRC February 1976 at The Electric Ballroom / The Palms was cancelled after they got picked up by Epic.
Penny beer nights at Hannah's were brutal. Taxis were cheap back then. $5.00 to get to the club, $4.00 cover charge for you and your girlfriend, 25¢ for a night of drinking and $5.00 for the ride home. You'd get there on time to get a table. After the first set, Cheap Trick play'd a lot of Bowie and Stones. I honestly do not remember Cheap Trick covering the Beatles. But the crowd was getting pretty dangerous on penny beers. And there was smoking. (Hannah's was a basement club with only one set of stairs.) After the third set it was time to head home. And the neighborhood was delightful.
Every night wasn't penny beer. There were multiple band nights. That is how Rick and Robin found future replacement guitartist.
Long term engagement at Someplace Else was different. Cheap Trick and sometimes my girlfriend and I would be the only ones on the music side vs the bar side.
Rockford is near the border.
So. To answer your question, I'm thinking Cheap Trick (Original Line-Up) spent so much time in Wisconsin they didn't become true flatlanders and therefore didn't suck.
REO Speedwagon sucked even back then. They play'd upper east side bars which weren't part of our stomping grounds. We pronounced it as "rheostat".
A few years ago, went with friends to Riversplash. REO Speedwagon was the headliner. Kevin Cronin actually skipped across the stage. That was it. Outta there. Abandon lawn chair.