Showing 'Em How It's Done
OC Register, CA
November 8, 2006
Aerosmith: Lead singer Steven Tyler performs with
the band at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday.
(Kelly A. Swift, For The Orange County Register)
.....Wow, it happened again, just as it did mere moments into Aerosmith's unbelievably strong set Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl: I completely forgot there was another band on this bill.....
I also thought Aerosmith couldn't be any better than it was at Staples Center in February – but I was wrong about that, too.
Tightly reconnected to its roots and rejuvenated despite a number of physical setbacks lately – including Steven Tyler's undisclosed throat ailment and guitarist Joe Perry suffering a concussion Saturday in Vegas after getting whacked in the face by a camera boom – Aerosmith is in peak form once again.
I can't recall the group ever giving a fiercer performance in the past decade. The Staples show was a half-hour longer and definitely more varied, laced with lesser-known cuts that thrill die-hards; by contrast this 80-minute gig was so taut it might have done with a bit of stretching.
Regardless, it was filler-free and rippingly executed from the bracing get-go, the band tearing through "Toys in the Attic," Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog" and the wicked "Eat the Rich" (an Election Day jab?) without pause. (The last song was so potent, it was only during the last 20 seconds that I remembered the fleecing at hand. Face value of my last-row-of-the-terrace ticket: $275.)
Nothing missed, nothing lagged, not even the new tune (and latest best-of title track) "Devil's Got a New Disguise," which charged harder than just about anything else the band has offered since "Pump." Perry shredded again and again – on a Claptonish "Stop Messin' Around," on a seriously smoking "Draw the Line," trading licks with Brad Whitford on a punchy "Love in an Elevator" and swelling "Dream On" (which, paired with "Seasons of Wither," gratefully replaced go-to ballads like "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.")
And if Tyler's voice has been suffering lately, it sure didn't show here; he nailed high notes with resolute intensity, his Jaggeresque stage demeanor as engaging as ever. He and Perry and the rest reminded just how rock spectacle succeeds – with mighty musicianship and swaggering appeal first. Aerosmith's lone effects were a giant high-def screen and, once in a while, a laser display straight outta '76. Yet they produced a hundred times more combustibility than all the flash pots in Mötley Crüe's arsenal.
Frankly, Aerosmith is coming on so strongly now, I'd trade five nights with the Rolling Stones for one more encounter like this one.
November 8, 2006
Aerosmith: Lead singer Steven Tyler performs with
the band at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday.
(Kelly A. Swift, For The Orange County Register)
.....Wow, it happened again, just as it did mere moments into Aerosmith's unbelievably strong set Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl: I completely forgot there was another band on this bill.....
I also thought Aerosmith couldn't be any better than it was at Staples Center in February – but I was wrong about that, too.
Tightly reconnected to its roots and rejuvenated despite a number of physical setbacks lately – including Steven Tyler's undisclosed throat ailment and guitarist Joe Perry suffering a concussion Saturday in Vegas after getting whacked in the face by a camera boom – Aerosmith is in peak form once again.
I can't recall the group ever giving a fiercer performance in the past decade. The Staples show was a half-hour longer and definitely more varied, laced with lesser-known cuts that thrill die-hards; by contrast this 80-minute gig was so taut it might have done with a bit of stretching.
Regardless, it was filler-free and rippingly executed from the bracing get-go, the band tearing through "Toys in the Attic," Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog" and the wicked "Eat the Rich" (an Election Day jab?) without pause. (The last song was so potent, it was only during the last 20 seconds that I remembered the fleecing at hand. Face value of my last-row-of-the-terrace ticket: $275.)
Nothing missed, nothing lagged, not even the new tune (and latest best-of title track) "Devil's Got a New Disguise," which charged harder than just about anything else the band has offered since "Pump." Perry shredded again and again – on a Claptonish "Stop Messin' Around," on a seriously smoking "Draw the Line," trading licks with Brad Whitford on a punchy "Love in an Elevator" and swelling "Dream On" (which, paired with "Seasons of Wither," gratefully replaced go-to ballads like "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.")
And if Tyler's voice has been suffering lately, it sure didn't show here; he nailed high notes with resolute intensity, his Jaggeresque stage demeanor as engaging as ever. He and Perry and the rest reminded just how rock spectacle succeeds – with mighty musicianship and swaggering appeal first. Aerosmith's lone effects were a giant high-def screen and, once in a while, a laser display straight outta '76. Yet they produced a hundred times more combustibility than all the flash pots in Mötley Crüe's arsenal.
Frankly, Aerosmith is coming on so strongly now, I'd trade five nights with the Rolling Stones for one more encounter like this one.
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