(# 321) Aerosmith –
Rocks (1976)
This is a solid hard rock album but not quite the classic it’s
been touted in some quarters. Back In
The Saddle and Last Child are great tracks as well as the closers Lick And A
Promise and Home Tonight. But much of
the remaining tracks sees them attempting to outdo The Rolling Stones (a criticism
made frequently at the time) with tales of rock’ n’ roll excess and its
consequences.
(# 322) Aerosmith – A
Nite In The Ruts (1979)
This album is as underrated as Rocks is overrated. No Surprize
is an absolute beauty, a hard driving number that is the perfect opener.
Chiquita, which follows it, is almost as good, sounding very much these days as
the prototype for Dude (Looks Like A Lady).
Cheese Cake is almost as good, Reefer Head Woman a convincing blues
number and Bone To Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy) has a solid jam feel. The album ends with Mia, one of their better
early ballads.
(#323) Aerosmith –
Get A Grip (1993)
Pump was always going to be a tough album to follow. Half of this album is great. Eat The Rich, the title track, Fever and Shut
Up And Dance are all great rockers and Living On the Edge and Cryin’ added to their
impressive catalogue of slower numbers.
The rest is fairly forgettable but some tracks might have passed muster
if the band kept the album to the shorter running times of its predecessors.
At 6 o’clock I said goodbye to “M” and headed into town. There was only ever going to be one album that
was going to blast out of the car stereo:
(#324) Aerosmith –
Pump (1989)
Hard rock perfection.
An absolutely streamlined, immaculately produced and played album
without a dud track. The opening salvo
of Young Lust/F.I.N.E/Love In An Elevator and Monkey On My Back pass by in a rush. Janie’s Got A Gun memorably slows the tempo and
the album has already reached its midpoint before you’ve realised it. The
second half pales a little in comparison but still contains tracks of the
calibre of The Other Side, Don’t Get Mad Get Even and What It Takes. Little details such as 60s style keyboards on
Elevator, Monkey and What It Takes add to effect and even the little
instrumental segues work perfectly.
With a huge crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a
twilight AFL game and Tool fans headed for a second night at Rod Laver Arena, I
knew parking would be at a premium and settle for a spot at the Casino. (Not that this mattered much; I 'm competing in
a walking challenge at work and the extra distance is good for the
pedometer.)
I arrive at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl having missed the
Dead Daisies, Spiderbait and Grinspoon but in time for a little bit of music
history – the final concert performance by Wolfmother. It doesn’t mean the current version of
the band is to split. Rather, as Andrew
Stockdale is the sole surviving original member, he has decided to retire the
band name and go under his own. As usual
they perform a tight 45 minute set incorporating their best known material and
a couple of new tunes.
Gig # 702 – Aerosmith
– Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
A lengthy visual extravaganza ends with an explosion, the
formation of the famed wings logo and lots of smoke. Steve Tyler and Joe Perry emerge from the
mist, larger than life. Perry heads to
the walkway extending into the audience and doffs his hat whilst Tyler counts
off the band into the opener, Love In An Elevator. The sound is mightily impressive and the famed
guitar interplay between Perry and Brad Whitford is already apparent even
though they barely cross each other’s path during the entire show. Yet the true momentum of the
band ultimately rests with Joey Kramer whose massive beats come with seemingly
little effort. He has a different partner
on bass as Tom Hamilton is sadly absent, presumably as he recovers from another
bout of cancer. Tyler, a true rock star, is in fine form and his voice shows no
real signs of age.
Elevetor immediately gives way to a frantic version of Toys
In The Attic setting the tone for a show neatly balanced between the pre and
post comeback catalogues. A solid
version of Jaded from Just Push Play is followed by Oh Yeah! from the latest
album which is received well by the crowd.
The first of the bands mega ballads – Cryin’ and Livin’ On
The Edge, both the only tracks from Get A Grip – are next and each is consumed
by the audience in a mass communal sing-along.
Rocks’ Last Child is a canny
inclusion only for the audience to erupt when the first lines of Janie’s Got A
Gun begin. This is followed by another intriguing
inclusion, a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Stop Messin’ Around which gives the band
a chance to play the blues “as they do in Boston”, for Tyler to have a break
and for Perry to exercise his vocal cords. It is very impressive.
Tyler returns for the cheesy ballad I Don’t Want To Miss A
Thing. Yet the reaction this provokes is
absolutely massive. Any man with a girl
and a beer seems to be singing along with his other arm around his beloved (i.e
the girl, not the beer). Even the
members of the support acts, perched in the VIP area above me seem to be
singing along. No More No More from Toys
In The Attic proves to be another canny inclusion. Pump’s What It Takes starts awkwardly with
Tyler acapella but evolves into a fine band performance.
Then comes arguably the performance of the night in the
guise of their wonderful cover (originally recorded for the disastrous Bee Gees/Peter
Frampton Sgt. Pepper’s movie) of The Beatles Come Together. Tyler’s vocals are spot on and Perry’s guitar
work is full of the menace that characterised the original recording. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) and Walk This Way
provided a memorable end to the main set, with the latter distinguished by a
couple of kids the band found earlier in the day performing outside their
hotel, performing 80s style breakdancing that provided a nod of sorts to
Run D.M.C.
The encore was reserved for magnificent renditions for their
two biggest ballads – Dream On and Sweet Emotion. The latter had Tyler playing a piano over a
sea of fog and the latter built up nicely into some fine guitar work. The show was supposed to end at this point,
but Perry pointed out that 5 minutes remained until the 10pm curfew and it
would be a shame to waste it. The band
then cranked out a brutal version of Train Kept A Rollin’ – knowing exactly how to cut it short to fit
the time limitation - to send all the diehards like me home very happily indeed.
It was a damn fine show and worth the 23 years of grumbling about
missing the 1990 tour. Although that
show showcased the Pump and Permanent Vacation albums, this was probably the
one for fans of their entire history to have seen. I probably wouldn’t have gone this time round
if I’d seen that show, so I guess I was ultimately rewarded by fate.
Oh yes, and another act off my concert bucket list.
No comments:
Post a Comment