Date: Sunday, August 22, 2010
City: Chicago, IL
Venue: First Midwest Bank Amphitheater
Opening act(s): Buckcherry
Headlining act: Aerosmith
Buckcherry Setlist:
Talk To Me
Fallout
All Night Long
Everything
Rescue Me
Next to You
Lit Up
These Things
It’s A Party
Dirty Mind
Sorry
Crazy Bitch
Aerosmith Setlist:
Same Old Song And Dance
Train Kept A Rollin’
Love In An Elevator
Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)
Livin’ On The Edge
What It Takes
Pink
Last Child
Cryin’
Drum Solo
Lord Of The Thighs
Rag Doll
Guitar Hero Joe
Stop Messin’ Around
I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
Come Together
Sweet Emotion
Walkin’ The Dog
Baby, Please Don’t Go
Draw The Line
———————
Dream On
Walk This Way
Notes:
- First time seeing “Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees),” “Lord Of The Thighs,” “Come Together,” and “Walkin’ The Dog” live.
- First open for “Same Old Song And Dance.” Fourth opener total.
- First time seeing Buckcherry live.
- Show #4 at this venue; first since July 17, 2009.
Videos:
Review:
After last year’s tour fell apart (pun intended), a slew of concert dates were canceled. One of those was the show in Tinley Park, and it was rescheduled for this year. That happened to work out well for me, as it allowed me to book my fifth Aerosmith concert.
Of course, things are far from better than they were a year ago in Aerosmith Land. In fact, they may be worse, as the announcement that Steven Tyler is joining American Idol (ugh) has done additional damage to the relationship between Steven and guitarist Joe Perry.
Brittany and I got to the amphitheater and had to wait outside for about 15 minutes before the doors were opened.
We headed in, stopped to piss, and then headed to our seats… Which were awesome. We were in the 11th row, three seats away from the catwalk that extended out 12 rows. So that meant we were right near the end, where the action would be. It was insane. Waiting until the week of the show to get tickets paid off big time.
Buckcherry opened the show. They were pretty good, but after awhile all their stuff kind of runs together. And they didn’t pace their set very well, blasting through a bunch of hits in a row, then playing a bunch of new and lesser known stuff in a row. It killed their momentum, especially the new ballad “These Things,” which was just a shitty song.
The stage was changed and Aerosmith took the stage a few minutes after 9:00.
Much to my surprise, they opened with “Same Old Song And Dance.” They haven’t done that since 1986! And even though I was avoiding setlists as much as possible, I still had it spoiled for me that they had been opening with “Train Kept A Rollin'” for the last couple of weeks. So it was a nice surprise when that didn’t open this show.
There were a few tense moments between Steven and Joe, but nothing too bad. The first came during “Train Kept A Rollin'” when Joe didn’t step up to Steven’s mic to sing the “Lookin’ so good, Jack, couldn’t let her go” line and Steven was pissed.
The next came during “Livin’ On The Edge” when Steven sang the line “You’re seeing things in a different way, and Joe knows it ain’t his,” slipping Joe in there where ‘God’ used to be.
Later, Joe Perry proceeded to SIT through ALL of “Last Child,” which was odd. At one point, Steven went over and sat by him.
Then after “Cryin’,” the two had a long chat. After that, things seemed a lot less tense and Joe was more of his “rock star” self. They both (more so Steven) spent a lot of time on the catwalk.
Not surprisingly, the other band members (Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer) just went about their business throughout the show and sounded as great as ever. It’s really amazing that these five guys are the same from the first album in 1973, and these three in particular don’t get the credit they deserve.
The set was much more extensive than last year, and saw the return of many of the big hits that were omitted. One of those was “Rag Doll,” which Brittany was thrilled to hear since it is one of her favorites.
I, of course, preferred the deep cuts, and things I don’t get to see very often. Not that I get to see Aerosmith constantly, but still.
They didn’t leave the stage till 11:20. The show was over two hours with 20 songs and two instrumental breaks. It was an awesome show, despite the tension.
As for the setlist, it was my first time seeing “Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees),” “Lord Of The Thighs,” “Come Together” (which I didn’t expect at all), and “Walkin’ The Dog” (which I also didn’t expect at all). There were 13 songs played at this show that weren’t played when I saw them just one year ago. Which is insane. And seeing those four songs for the first time brought my overall total for Aerosmith to 43 different songs in five shows over a nine year period. Compared to Def Leppard, where I’ve seen 44 different songs over 23 shows over a 14 year period.
Take that Def Leppard!
Media Review:
Terrible Acoustics Deplete Aerosmith Show Of Much Sweet Emotion; Performance Itself A Bit Impassive
Last night I went to a concert by a legendary hard rock band and heard music at a considerably lower volume than I did on my drive home.
Thus, while I would like here to encapsulate Aerosmith’s performance, the truth is my enjoyment of it was audibly diminished by the atrocious sound system employed by the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre to reach us peasants on the lawn. The concert itself–coming amidst some recent band turmoil–wasn’t perfect, but I know I would’ve liked it a whole lot better had I been in the pavilion or a good bit closer than halfway up the hill that constitutes the “lawn section.”
Funny thing is, I feel as if I almost have no right to complain as due to a promotion by promoter Live Nation prompted by slow ticket sales, I was able to get in for only $10 including parking. As such, the outing with two good friends was still technically “worth it,” but Live Nation–which also owns the venue–should be thoroughly ashamed of such completely crappy acoustics.
I’ve always hated the utilitarian Tinley Park “shed”–by far the worst concert venue in the Chicagoland area–but I don’t recall ever experiencing a concert so utterly impaired by such a lousy sound system. Just because I didn’t pony up for pavilion seats or get to the show early enough to sit closer on the lawn–where every 10 feet forward seemingly improved the volume by about 10%, per a trek to the restroom and late-show descent–doesn’t mean I deserved to hear Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and all 5 original Aerosmithians at levels that allowed me to comfortably converse above the music without raising my voice. (I know my hearing is likely a bit depleted after years of concertgoing, but my comrades concurred that the sound was horrendous.)
After all, it’s not like I was seeing a concert in a parking garage or even at a stadium not solely designed for musical performances. The only reason this oft-renamed venue exists is to host summertime concerts, so it’s stupefying that its acoustics suck so bad.
Now as for Aerosmith, who may have been somewhat complicit in the sound problems by not properly soundchecking to the back of the lawn, they were–not too surprisingly–something of a mixed bag.
I have been a fan for almost exactly 32 years, tied to the late-summer 1978 release of the not-so-great movie version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which my favorite musical moment was when Aerosmith sang “Come Together.” Not long thereafter, I got their 1978 double live album titled Live Bootleg and have loved it to this day
By the end of the ’70s, Aerosmith splintered, with guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford leaving the band. Although the original unit reformed on solid trio of mid-to-late ’80s albums, I didn’t care much for their outside-songwriter-assisted ’90s schmaltz like Crazy, Cryin’ and Amazing, three separate yet roughly the same songs whose only redeeming quality were videos that introduced Liv Tyler and Alicia Silverstone to the world.
So going into last night’s show, I already knew the setlist would be just as full of material from 1990 forward as the raunchily rocking relics that are what I really love about Aerosmith (along with their first hit, Dream On). But especially for just $10, I was fine with that. Although along with Same Old Song & Dance, Last Child, Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way, I would’ve loved to also hear Toys In The Attic and Back In The Saddle.
Again, the dreadful acoustics made everything less exciting, but even at 62, Tyler’s voice sounded sharp and the classics were fun to hear (the Tribune has a pretty positive review). Yet even if I were in the pavilion, I don’t think I would be quite raving about the performance, and not because the setlist wasn’t the one I would’ve put together.
Maybe it’s because after 40 years on the road, the boys have gotten weary, of each other if not in general; maybe it’s because after falling off a stage and abruptly ending last year’s Aerosmith tour, Tyler threatened to go solo and Perry–who my friend Paolo brilliantly pegged as sporting a Cruella de Vil look–started auditioning new singers, forcing Tyler to have him served with a cease-and-desist order; maybe it’s because Tyler’s recently revealed new role as an American Idol judge could interfere with the band’s future plans; or maybe it’s because just last Tuesday, Perry bumped Tyler off a stage in Toronto. But for whatever reason, Aerosmith didn’t seem all that “into” last night’s show, and clearly not into each other.
The five bandmates all looked to be doing their thing in their own space, and even when Tyler–still a fun-to-watch rock ‘n’ roll original–tried to engage Perry in some interplay, Cruella, er, I mean Joe, didn’t appear to want any part of it. Also dulling things down a bit, besides the latter day ballads, were drum and guitar solos, the latter with Perry cheesily accompanied by his Guitar Hero avatar.
Band members don’t have to love each other to make great music; sometimes tension even helps and these guys have probably intermittently loathed each other since 1970, when Aerosmith formed in Boston and bonded over Three Stooges episodes. When my friends and I were able to move about 30 feet down the hill to hear Dream On and Walk This Way as encores to the generous 2-hour-plus main set, we could hear the music significantly better and it sounded damn good.
All in all, I’m glad I went, especially as I’d only seen Aerosmith once before (and that wasn’t until 2004 and required a drive up to Green Bay and getting hassled throughout the show by drunk Wisconsinites). For $10, I clearly got my money’s worth and next time–will there be one for this band?–I would gladly pay $20 if it means Live Nation will upgrade the venue’s 99-cent soundsystem.
By Seth Saith @ SethSaith.blogspot.com, 2010
Links: My Pictures | Concert Page on AerosmithSetlists.com
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