Joys in the Static: Aerosmith and Cheap Trick Deliver Classic Arena Rock Enjoyment -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Aerosmith
with Cheap Trick
United Center, Chicago
June 22, 2012
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(overall rating, but also for each band)

Unlike presumably some of those who robustly filled the United Center on Friday night, I can honestly say that Steven Tyler being on American Idol had absolutely no bearing on my attendance.

For I have been a fan of both Aerosmith and Cheap Trick since the age of 10, if not a trifle earlier. If there are any two records I purchased prior to Live Bootleg, by the former, and At Budokan, by the latter, I do not recall them.

Thus, there are no two still-active rock artists for whom I've had a more enduring fandom (unless you count The Rolling Stones as active and allow Paul McCartney to represent The Beatles).

But with that said, opting to go to last night's double bill wasn't as obvious as it may seem. I've seen Cheap Trick several times, and while I will never tire of hearing their classics, as the opening act their influence on my decision to attend was substantive, but secondary.

And my desire to see Aerosmith was largely fueled by having been disappointed the two prior times I'd attended a concert of theirs. The first time, after years of their being high on my list of "favorite rock bands I've never seen live," was in 2004--with Cheap Trick as the opener--and for that I had to drive up to Green Bay. The bands were good, if not fantastic, but I was made rather uncomfortable by rude interactions with obnoxiously drunk cheeseheads (male and female) throughout the show.

And in August 2010, I with some friends got $10 lawn seats to see Aerosmith at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park. Again, the music itself was enjoyable enough, but the sound was utterly atrocious, as I wrote about in my review. Plus, at the time, the band was in particularly intense turmoil, with Joe Perry having recently pushed Steven Tyler off a stage, and even from the lawn it looked like no one was interacting nor having much fun onstage.

That whole introduction serves to basically explain that I went to the UC last night in hopes of finally catching a first-rate Aerosmith show, and because I love Cheap Trick as well.

As Aerosmith sings in their earliest hit, "Dream On," from 1973, "dream until your dreams come true." Fortunately--in terms of getting an Aerosmith/Cheap Trick arena rock show as good as I hoped--they pretty much did.

Waiting until just this week to buy my ticket, through Ticketmaster, I got about the best cheap seat imaginable; 3rd row of the 3rd deck, straight away.

From there, except for through my binoculars, the members of both bands didn't look over 60--as most of them are, or close to it--and they sure didn't sound it.

Going on promptly at 8:00pm, before the house was full but with a number of fans--myself included--adorned in Cheap Trick t-shirts, the Rockford quartet played a terrific hourlong set.

Longtime drummer Bun E. Carlos no longer tours with the band, replaced by guitarist Rick Nielsen's son, Daxx, but with singer Robin Zander still sounding great, Cheap Trick delivered as-good-as-ever renditions of "Ain't That A Shame," "Surrender," "I Want You To Want Me," "Dream Police" and several other great oldies (see their full setlist on Setlist.fm).

As a CT fan to the extent I am, I certainly could say I wish they'd played this or that, but I was actually surprised Aerosmith allotted them a full hour and for an opening set, it couldn't have been any more satisfying.

Aerosmith opened their set in pretty cool fashion--as you can see in this video from a recent show--with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry rising up together through a lift at the end of a catwalk as the band ripped into "Draw the Line."

Perhaps it was just for show, but within the first five minutes, Steve & Joe seemed more amicable with each other than during the entirety of their 2010 gig. (Perhaps that's why Aerosmith has dubbed this "The Global Warming Tour.")

The rest of the original band--guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer--also seemed engaged and in sync. And while the United Center can be acoustically-challenged at times, everything sounded good enough for me, eons better than at the shed in Tinley.

Having become an Aerosmith fan in the late '70s, I still prefer their output from that decade to anything that came after (the same can be said for Cheap Trick as well).

So I was happy to hear powerful renditions of "Draw the Line," "Last Child," "Mama Kin," "Sweet Emotion," "Walk This Way" and "Train Kept a Rollin.'" I certainly would have also preferred to hear "Toys in the Attic" and/or "Back in the Saddle" instead of schmaltzy '90s ballads "Crying," "What It Takes" and "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," but I get that Aerosmith expanded its fan base with that stuff and has to play it. If anything, the crowd seemed more revved up about the '80s and '90s tunes than most of the ones I loved from the '70s.

To their credit, Aerosmith played at least a couple new songs that fit in well, as well as a few older songs and/or covers that I didn't know, but sounded good (see Aerosmith's Chicago setlist on Setlist.fm). I could have stood for Kramer's drum solo to be a bit shorter, but as Tyler noted and the crowd saluted, it was the drummer's birthday.

With his voice still solid at 64, Tyler remains one of rock's best frontmen and now that he's seemingly playing nice with his bandmates, it's possible that Aerosmith is better they've been for years, and conceivably just as good if not better than they ever will be again .

Especially with Cheap Trick to open the evening, I'm glad I got another chance to catch them. And for anyone who rues missing them, the same double bill will appear at Milwaukee's Summerfest on July 7.

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"Dream On" from the United Center, as found on YouTube:

Terrible acoustics deplete Aerosmith show of much sweet emotion; performance itself a bit impassive

Concert Review

Aerosmith
with Buckcherry
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Tinley Park, IL
Sunday, August 22, 2010
@@@1/2



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.

Chicago Tribune photo by Simon Brubaker

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.

Chicago Sun-Times photo

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.