Concert Review: Aerosmith Can Still Rock the Arena Like the Old Days
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA
November 29, 2005
When Aerosmith played the Civic Arena nearly 30 years ago -- back when the kids took 'ludes and either passed out or fought in the hallways -- there was a whiff of the underworld in the Bad Boys from Boston.
Take a look at Steven Tyler and Joe Perry now and you know they made a deal with the devil. Or at least a good plastic surgeon.
Aerosmith swung through the Mellon Arena Saturday night, playing to those same people, now hauling around their little children in Aerosmith T-shirts.
Some things were the same. Tyler still has the scarves on his mike stand, that witchy spin move and cat-like wail. He also had a couple more power ballads and a set of ramps that took him half the length of the Arena floor and up into the stands and into the arms and sometimes lips of his fans.
"After the show we'll meet in the shower, just you and me," he said to one of the girls. " 'Cause I ain't married no more."
Tyler, parading around in a sleeveless Monsters of Rock T-shirt and skin-tight striped pants, is an unabashed rock star and still one of the best frontmen on the planet. At 57! At his hip was Perry, looking stylish and fit in -- what else can you call it? -- a puffy shirt and spurs.
Somehow, even while running around the Arena most of the time like Sidney Crosby without skates, Aerosmith took care of business.
They played, to perfection, a mean 16-song set that hit on their vintage styles of blues boogie ("Walk This Way"), big balladry ("I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," "Dream On"), slow-grinding metal ("Lord of the Thighs") and blues stomp ("Train Kept a Rollin' "). The addition of blues grinder "Baby, Please Don't Go" gave Tyler a showcase for his soulful work on harmonica.
Tyler's voice has held up as well as his hair, and Perry and Brad Whitford (looking slightly pained) put on a guitar clinic, especially on "Sweet Emotion," which started with Perry on the talkbox and ended with him working his magic on theremin and feedback.
For Aerosmith, it's the "Same Old Song and Dance," and that's the near miracle of it all.
Opener Lenny Kravitz, a relative youngster at 41, doesn't bring the same flamboyance or excitement to the stage that he once did. But he still has a set full of hits that have held up reasonably well and a versatile eight-piece band behind him that included the swingin' New Orleans character "Trombone Shorty." If only it all rocked like the last song, "Are You Gonna Go My Way."
November 29, 2005
When Aerosmith played the Civic Arena nearly 30 years ago -- back when the kids took 'ludes and either passed out or fought in the hallways -- there was a whiff of the underworld in the Bad Boys from Boston.
Take a look at Steven Tyler and Joe Perry now and you know they made a deal with the devil. Or at least a good plastic surgeon.
Aerosmith swung through the Mellon Arena Saturday night, playing to those same people, now hauling around their little children in Aerosmith T-shirts.
Some things were the same. Tyler still has the scarves on his mike stand, that witchy spin move and cat-like wail. He also had a couple more power ballads and a set of ramps that took him half the length of the Arena floor and up into the stands and into the arms and sometimes lips of his fans.
"After the show we'll meet in the shower, just you and me," he said to one of the girls. " 'Cause I ain't married no more."
Tyler, parading around in a sleeveless Monsters of Rock T-shirt and skin-tight striped pants, is an unabashed rock star and still one of the best frontmen on the planet. At 57! At his hip was Perry, looking stylish and fit in -- what else can you call it? -- a puffy shirt and spurs.
Somehow, even while running around the Arena most of the time like Sidney Crosby without skates, Aerosmith took care of business.
They played, to perfection, a mean 16-song set that hit on their vintage styles of blues boogie ("Walk This Way"), big balladry ("I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," "Dream On"), slow-grinding metal ("Lord of the Thighs") and blues stomp ("Train Kept a Rollin' "). The addition of blues grinder "Baby, Please Don't Go" gave Tyler a showcase for his soulful work on harmonica.
Tyler's voice has held up as well as his hair, and Perry and Brad Whitford (looking slightly pained) put on a guitar clinic, especially on "Sweet Emotion," which started with Perry on the talkbox and ended with him working his magic on theremin and feedback.
For Aerosmith, it's the "Same Old Song and Dance," and that's the near miracle of it all.
Opener Lenny Kravitz, a relative youngster at 41, doesn't bring the same flamboyance or excitement to the stage that he once did. But he still has a set full of hits that have held up reasonably well and a versatile eight-piece band behind him that included the swingin' New Orleans character "Trombone Shorty." If only it all rocked like the last song, "Are You Gonna Go My Way."
| Permalink | E-mail this post 
