I may be mistaken, but didn’t I hear Steven Tyler broke his shoulder in a fall during a concert and that this tour has been cancelled?

I’ve been to 4 Aerosmith concerts in the past 10 years. I haven’t been on this particular tour, but all of theirs are awesome. It was obvious that the band was getting older when comparing the first concert I attended to the last one because some of the songs were played just a smidge slower, Steven didn’t jump around as much (but still a heck of a lot for an old man!!!!), and he just can’t scream as much as he used to. But, they are legends and if you haven’t seen them already… this may be your last chance.

@whatthefluther yes, Steven Tyler did fall off the stage and the rest of the tour has been postponed. Unfortunately I am one of the people that were supposed to be attending and was wondering peoples thoughts on this tour for the cities they recently performed.

I did catch Aerosmith during their previous tour about two years ago. That was about the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen them and I can say their act has not changed in forty years. But, why fuck with something great that works well. Tyler can still belt it out and is still among the very best in the game. He still has the scarves going and can still move and kick like a mad man altho, he has expectedly slowed down some. Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, who I regard as one of the top dual guitar attack teams in the world, both still play clean, fast and with a flair. The entire band was tight and light-hearted and intent on having fun (it was Whitford’s birthday) and putting on a good enjoyable show. They did not fail!

As always, it’s up to me to be the contrarian. If you’re looking for a show where they pull out some of their biggest hits and the songs that are the biggest crowd pleasers, the ones they could do in their sleep (and often look like they might as well be) you won’t be disappointed. If you’re looking for the band to really show off their range, to reach deep into their back catalog and to play their best music, regardless of whether it makes the girlies scream and the cigarette lighters come out, you will leave sorely disappointed. I’ve seen them twice, and though the second time I saw them was better than the first, both times they were upstaged by the opening act in my opinion. It seems to me that they’ve reached the point in their career where all they have to do is pull out the hits and they can sell out shows anywhere, and when you’ve been to as many concerts as I have, you get really sick of the “legends” coming in, doing a 75 to 90 minute show which includes just the songs everyone knows the words to (whether the songs suck or not), and heading backstage to count their money.

Now, I see that they do change up their setlist from time to time and you might be lucky enough to be there on the night they pull out Toys in the Attic and Big Ten Inch Record, or you might get stuck with a night where they play Cryin’ and Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, but you know if you’re lucky enough to see the show with the older songs, they may skip Dream On or Back in the Saddle. Basically, they have probably 10 really great songs from the 70s in my estimation that have stood the test of time, you’ll probably hear 5 of them, and the other 8 songs will be the ones that you think to yourself, well, I’d much rather have heard x, y and z (unless you really want to hear Fallin in Love is Hard on the Knees and don’t care so much for Sweet Emotion).

My main complaints are a) the shows are too damn short….they’ve been around long enough and have a good enough repertoire that they should be able to play for 2½ hours…if you’re going to charge those prices, give us a show like Prince or Springsteen or Elvis Costello…hell, even the White Stripes would give you…play all your classics, and whatever else you feel like playing that night instead of worrying about where you’re going to fit in What it Takes or Eat the Rich in your 75 minute set, b) they are inconsistent…they don’t play their best material at every show, and you can’t guarantee you’re going to even hear songs which should be played at every damn show like Dream On, but you may end up with a Janie’s Got a Gun instead, and c) it often to me feels like they’re going through the motions, padding their retirement funds, etc. The band seems to be creatively out of ideas…they haven’t had a hit song in over 8 years now and their biggest feature of their current tour seems to be stuff that was featured in their Guitar Hero game.

Now yes, if you’ve never seen Aerosmith, whatever they play, it sounds fantastic live, and it’s an experience you might want to have, even if you don’t leave fully satisfied, so it might be worth it just to be able to experience it once. And with ZZ Top on the bill, well if I had a job right now, I’d probably go see the show even though I’ve seen Aerosmith twice and left disappointed twice (or I should say only half satisfied). But I wouldn’t sell blood, go without meals for two weeks or skip essential dentistry work to be able to afford tickets. Of course, the gang is getting up their in years…with age comes technical expertise, but on occasion your singer may take a header off the stage and break a shoulder…such is the price of trying to dance when you’re in your 60s.

@dalepetrie…This is not the first time I’ve read a review from another city of a band on tour where I double take and think, “whoa, that can’t be the same band I just saw.” But I highly suspect all bands pull out all the stops and give their best efforts when they play Los Angeles, arguably the home of the music business, and a place that a large number of their peers call home. All the Aerosmith shows I saw, less one where it seemed both they and I were a bit too fucked up on drugs (but hey, they may have just been me), were extended shows including all the hits. And the last one, being Whitford’d birthday in Los Angeles was truly a feel good experience with the entire audience singing Happy Birthday and band members taking the mike and sharing stories. And its not hard to imagine a band in the grinds of a tour being excited about playing L.A, which happens to be where a lot of bands schedule their tour opening or closing. I mean, Los Angeles or Little Rock…where would you be up to play? Oh, yeah, Lenny Kravitz with all his struttin’ was fucking great, but he did not upstage Aerosmith….well, at least not here in L.A. (also Lenny’s home).

@whatthefluther – a couple things about that….1) there’s no reason to treat Minneapolis/St. Paul, where I see all my concerts as just another stop on the money train and give everything to the coasts which are already entertainment meccas…that just makes me have even less respect for them, and 2) certainly wasn’t an isolated incident…I saw them twice, both times the shows were around 75 minutes long (whereas I’ve seen many artists of their caliber go 2, 2½ hours), and if you look at their website, you can see the setlists for their current tours, pretty much exactly what I said…13 songs (which can’t go more than 75 minutes), many of the hits from the 90s, and only about ½ of their best songs. If they’re only going to do good shows on the coasts, then fuck them, they shouldn’t even bother.