After All These Years, Aerosmith Still Rocks The Joint
The Day, CT
October 31, 2005
How much you want to bet that, for Halloween tonight, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry go as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards? The joke: they wouldn't have to dress up.
Yes, Aerosmith's frontmen blaze with their very own glimmer-twins vibe. Tyler's got the flexible-voiced, helium-lipped, preen-dancing performance style down pat, and Perry plays guitar like a man possessed. What Aerosmith's concert Sunday night at Mohegan Sun Arena showed was that this long-running band has something else in common with the Stones: a continuing, dynamic enthusiasm for performing and a supreme musicianship.
Aerosmith, led by 57-year-old Tyler and 55-year-old Perry, kicked off its new tour at the Sun, and the concert crackled and roared. When Tyler said, happy in the return-to-stage moment, “I think we've been off the road too long,” it seemed as though all the band members felt the same sweet emotion. The show, with opener Lenny Kravitz, was the first of a two-night stand at the casino. The second concert is at 7 Tuesday, and tickets, which are available from the Sun box office, range from $97.50 to $150.
Sure, you'd be paying dearly for those tickets, but you'd be likely to get more of a close view of the musicians than usual, based on Sunday's show. The guys weren't restricted to the stage. They had free rein, thanks to two ramps that ran down either side of the arena floor and then angled toward each other, with stairs leading down. The performers strutted those walkways, playing it up to the exuberant concert-goers along the way. Perry climbed down into the audience and then jumped up on someone's chair to churn out a solo on “Same Old Song and Dance.” During “Livin' on the Edge,” Tyler - dressed in a sleeveless black T and black-and-white striped pants - sidled up a side ramp and leaned precariously over a railing, almost into the crowd.
Although Aerosmith has a new CD out, “Rockin' the Joint,” the band stuck mostly to its gilded greatest hits package. (Perry's creaky vocal lead on the new “Shakin' My Cage” only reinforced his Keith-Richardsonian traits; he was meant to play blistering guitar, not to warble.) While it would be wonderful to hear more unexpected songs from the group, their tried-and-true line-up can still galvanize audiences. On Sunday, “Dream On” propelled itself with the same irresistible momentum as it did when it was released 20 years ago. Despite its novelty-song lyrics, “Dude Looks Like a Lady” swaggered musically with traffic-stopping blues-rock attitude.
Some other things never change, too. Tyler's voice still has that epic emotive power, not to mention range; he hit the primal scream at the end of “Dream On” with gusto. He's still got the scarves tied to the mike stand. And the band still has fans - the electrical kind, not the groupie kind - set up at various points on the stage, billowing their hair as if they were in a Stevie Nicks video.
What was unusual, not just for Aerosmith but for any group playing this venue, was that Tyler thanked Mohegan Sun and several tribal officials and casino execs by name.
Theatrically, Aerosmith is a two-man show. Musically, it's a full-band affair. Guitarist Brad Whitford, drummer Joey Kramer and bassist Tom Hamilton were, as always, deadpan physically but impassioned instrumentally.
A quick note about the staging: grates hung from the ceiling that lit up in abstract patterns. Sounds boring, but it was understated yet effective.
Lenny Kravitz opened the show with a surge of vitality. As Tyler said about Aerosmith, Kravitz seemed jazzed to be performing live again. He sounded fantastic, and he didn't look too bad either, the king of cool with close-cropped hair, faux snakeskin jacket and Bono wraparound sunglasses.
His performance was so potent that it was surprising to hear what Kravitz had to say near the end of his set. Introducing “Let Love Rule,” he said that his father had died the previous night, and he wanted to dedicate the song to him. (Kravitz must really take to heart the “show must go on” philosophy.) “He's in a beautiful place now with the Lord, so we are going to celebrate this evening,” Kravitz said. He then asked the audience to sing along on the chorus of “Let Love Rule.” “Let Love Rule” is too slow to be a sing-along number, but it was a lovely sentiment on Kravitz's part and clearly a heartfelt moment from him.
By: Kristina Dorsey
October 31, 2005
How much you want to bet that, for Halloween tonight, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry go as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards? The joke: they wouldn't have to dress up.
Yes, Aerosmith's frontmen blaze with their very own glimmer-twins vibe. Tyler's got the flexible-voiced, helium-lipped, preen-dancing performance style down pat, and Perry plays guitar like a man possessed. What Aerosmith's concert Sunday night at Mohegan Sun Arena showed was that this long-running band has something else in common with the Stones: a continuing, dynamic enthusiasm for performing and a supreme musicianship.
Aerosmith, led by 57-year-old Tyler and 55-year-old Perry, kicked off its new tour at the Sun, and the concert crackled and roared. When Tyler said, happy in the return-to-stage moment, “I think we've been off the road too long,” it seemed as though all the band members felt the same sweet emotion. The show, with opener Lenny Kravitz, was the first of a two-night stand at the casino. The second concert is at 7 Tuesday, and tickets, which are available from the Sun box office, range from $97.50 to $150.
Sure, you'd be paying dearly for those tickets, but you'd be likely to get more of a close view of the musicians than usual, based on Sunday's show. The guys weren't restricted to the stage. They had free rein, thanks to two ramps that ran down either side of the arena floor and then angled toward each other, with stairs leading down. The performers strutted those walkways, playing it up to the exuberant concert-goers along the way. Perry climbed down into the audience and then jumped up on someone's chair to churn out a solo on “Same Old Song and Dance.” During “Livin' on the Edge,” Tyler - dressed in a sleeveless black T and black-and-white striped pants - sidled up a side ramp and leaned precariously over a railing, almost into the crowd.
Although Aerosmith has a new CD out, “Rockin' the Joint,” the band stuck mostly to its gilded greatest hits package. (Perry's creaky vocal lead on the new “Shakin' My Cage” only reinforced his Keith-Richardsonian traits; he was meant to play blistering guitar, not to warble.) While it would be wonderful to hear more unexpected songs from the group, their tried-and-true line-up can still galvanize audiences. On Sunday, “Dream On” propelled itself with the same irresistible momentum as it did when it was released 20 years ago. Despite its novelty-song lyrics, “Dude Looks Like a Lady” swaggered musically with traffic-stopping blues-rock attitude.
Some other things never change, too. Tyler's voice still has that epic emotive power, not to mention range; he hit the primal scream at the end of “Dream On” with gusto. He's still got the scarves tied to the mike stand. And the band still has fans - the electrical kind, not the groupie kind - set up at various points on the stage, billowing their hair as if they were in a Stevie Nicks video.
What was unusual, not just for Aerosmith but for any group playing this venue, was that Tyler thanked Mohegan Sun and several tribal officials and casino execs by name.
Theatrically, Aerosmith is a two-man show. Musically, it's a full-band affair. Guitarist Brad Whitford, drummer Joey Kramer and bassist Tom Hamilton were, as always, deadpan physically but impassioned instrumentally.
A quick note about the staging: grates hung from the ceiling that lit up in abstract patterns. Sounds boring, but it was understated yet effective.
Lenny Kravitz opened the show with a surge of vitality. As Tyler said about Aerosmith, Kravitz seemed jazzed to be performing live again. He sounded fantastic, and he didn't look too bad either, the king of cool with close-cropped hair, faux snakeskin jacket and Bono wraparound sunglasses.
His performance was so potent that it was surprising to hear what Kravitz had to say near the end of his set. Introducing “Let Love Rule,” he said that his father had died the previous night, and he wanted to dedicate the song to him. (Kravitz must really take to heart the “show must go on” philosophy.) “He's in a beautiful place now with the Lord, so we are going to celebrate this evening,” Kravitz said. He then asked the audience to sing along on the chorus of “Let Love Rule.” “Let Love Rule” is too slow to be a sing-along number, but it was a lovely sentiment on Kravitz's part and clearly a heartfelt moment from him.
By: Kristina Dorsey
| Permalink | E-mail this post 
