Providence Journal, RI
November 13, 2005
When Aerosmith pulls into the Dunkin' Donuts Center tomorrow night, look for a few surprises in the set list.
According to guitarist Joe Perry, the Boston-based rock icons will still play "those five to eight songs that, if I was an Aerosmith fan, I would want to hear every time." But they'll also pay tribute to some of the less-known numbers in their 30-plus-year career.
That ties in well with this tour, which promotes their latest disc,
Rockin' The Joint. Recorded live at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, the new disc has renditions of hits such as "Same Old Song and Dance," "Draw the Line," "Walk This Way" and "Train Kept A-Rollin' " (and the video side of the DualDisc includes the warhorses "Dream On" and "Sweet Emotion"), but the band also rips through such less-known songs as "Beyond Beautiful," from 2001's
Just Push Play album; "No More No More," from 1975's breakthrough
Toys in the Attic; and "Seasons of Wither," said to be singer Steven Tyler's favorite Aerosmith song, from 1974's
Get Your Wings.
"They're all favorites of ours," Perry says of the songs on
Rockin' the Joint.
Over the years, he explains, entire albums worth of material fall by the wayside in favor of the old favorites. "At this point," says Perry, "you have such a backlog of songs that you could almost go out there and play a whole set of 'new material' that you wrote 5 years ago, 8 years ago, 15 years ago. And it's all new stuff because it never really got played live."
The record is taken from one performance, rather than pieced together from many shows on a tour, as most live records are. The Joint, at the Hard Rock Hotel, is much smaller than most of the giant venues Aerosmith plays, and Perry says that helped.
"You just feel like you can cut loose a little more when you know it's going to be packed. . . . You give yourself a little more latitude to play the esoteric songs, the so-called album cuts that we don't often play in the big shows. . . .
"We try and represent each record when we're writing up the set list, but on this particular night -- you know you're playing to people who have most of the records."
At one point during the Rockin' the Joint show, Tyler asks the fans, "Do you like the old [expletive] or the new [expletive]?" The crowd overwhelmingly roars, "OLD!"
Of course they mean it with love. But after so many years and so many albums, is it frustrating for people to clamor for 20-year-old songs?
"I'm so far past that now," Perry says. "Maybe 15 years ago, I'd be like, 'C'mon, let's get with it! These are our new songs!'
"But I understand at this point, because I'm a fan too, and when I go to see a band that I've always been a fan of, I know how it feels when they play some of the old stuff. And I want to see some of that. And I'd feel kind of bummed out if they didn't play some of the standards."
Aerosmith, of course, suffered a blow in 1979 when Perry and guitarist Brad Whitford left the group. Each went solo, and Aerosmith put out two albums with two new guitar players, but it wasn't the same.
Getting back together in 1985 was the first step back, but cleaning up their acts -- getting off drugs and alcohol -- was what cemented the group's comeback and a second phase even more successful than the first. Still, there was a musical cost to go along with the human one.
"Personally, I think
Night in the Ruts (the 1979 album that Perry left the group before completion) is some of the best playing that we've done in the studio. I think it's a shame that it got overlooked. . . . Everything else was falling apart around us, and that showed we were still capable of rocking out."
He's looking forward to reviving some of the material on this tour.
The Rockin' the Joint show was recorded in January 2002, on the Just Push Play tour, and according to Perry, the delay in putting out this record was simply a matter of time and energy. First, the group put out last year's
Honkin' on Bobo, a collection of Aerosmith's takes on blues classics such as "Road Runner" and "Baby Please Don't Go."
Honkin' on Bobo was one of three of the band's pet projects, Perry says. The others are a collection of '60s pop-rock classics and a re-recording of some of the band's classic material.
"I'm certainly a better guitar player than I was in 1973," Perry says.
Aerosmith will start work on a new studio record in the spring. Ever since the second album of its comeback, 1987's
Permanent Vacation, the band has worked with outside songwriters such as Desmond Child, Diane Warren and Jim Vallance. Perry says he's not sure yet whether that'll happen again, but whatever happens, he's OK.
"It's inspiring. When you bring someone in, they have an idea of what an Aerosmith song should be, and it's interesting to hear what their interpretation of the Aerosmith sound is -- whatever that is. It's always fun to do.
"We've got piles of stuff -- some of it works and some of it doesn't. . . . It depends on what the vibe is when we start rolling."
Along with the band's reunion and sobering-up process, Perry cites as Aerosmith milestones their Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction; their set at the 2001 Super Bowl ("one event that totally baffled me in its enormity"); and playing at the MTV Awards at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"Growing up in the '50s and '60s, the Evil Empire was ready to kill us. So the fact that we were able to play in a united and free Berlin in my lifetime -- that was unbelievable. And rock 'n' roll played no small part in that."
Perry looks forward to returning to Providence, remembering the dozens of shows he's seen in the former Providence Civic Center as well as the Aerosmith performances there.
"It's been so long since we played that building. It was a home away from home for us, and we have so many memories."
Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz will perform at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, 1 La Salle Square, Providence, tomorrow night at 7:30. Tickets are $55.50 to $125.50; call (401) 331-2211 or go to
www.ticketmaster.com.
