Cheap Trick and Joan Jett rocked the Convocation Center on Saturday night.

At 7:30 p.m., Jett belted out “I don’t give a damn about my reputation,” and before she could finish the famed lyrics with, “Livin’ in the past, it’s the new generation,” fans were rushing through the doors and scrambling for seats.

The energy in the Convo Center was electric and infectious at the beginning of the evening, and Jett did not encourage fans to sit idly.

Jett’s voice sounded like a firecracker, or at least someone who’s been smoking firecrackers for most of her life, but the salt had a lot of sweet in it, too. The always rebellious rocker sang new material along with a handful of crowd-pleasers.

To close her set, Jett played “Crimson and Clover,” “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

After Jett regaled the crowd with an encore, she introduced Cheap Trick to the stage, with guitarist Rick Nielsen front and center.

Nielsen kept most of the evening going with his personality and conversation with the crowd.

“I heard about a Cheap Trick party going on about a block away from here,” Nielsen told the crowd. “I think if we all showed up, they’d run out of beer in about a minute.”

More notable than Nielsen’s party motto were his guitar changes — at least four different guitars by the end of Cheap Trick’s time onstage. To close out the evening, the band performed its hit song “Surrender,” with Jett returning to sing vocals while Nielsen used a 30-string guitar (five guitars fused into one electric machine of rock).

Before the band returned to do a three-song encore, State Senator Dave Syverson of Rockford (Cheap Trick’s hometown) took some time to surprise the band.

Syverson declared April 1 “Cheap Trick Day” in Illinois and handed the band an order to make the matter official.

“How about that s—?” was all Nielsen could say, giving the senator a handshake as thanks for the honor. The night was rewarding for Cheap Trick, and fans left the Convo satisfied with the rock legends’ performances.