They’re possibly the biggest rock ‘n’ roll band to ever come out of the United States, and over the past few weeks they have been gracing our shores on what is their first Australian tour in in 28 years. After being strongly rumoured to be one of the headliners on the fallen Soundwave Revolution lineup, Aerosmith have been waited upon for headlining shows ever since.
Well finally, not all that long ago, the band from Boston announced their Australian tour including a date on the Stone Music Festival lineup alongside no other than Van Halen.
The bluesy rock band, celebrating 43 years together this year, played to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre last week as a part of this tour. With support from a newly formed group by the name of The Dead Daisies, Aerosmith rocked the house and showed everyone why they’re still an enduring band after all this time.
As fans everywhere swarm on to the Entertainment steps, The Dead Daisies open up the night inside. Comprised of Jon Stevens (Noiseworks) on vocals, Charley Drayton (Cold Chisel) on drums, Richard Fortus (Guns ‘N’ Roses) on guitar, Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy) and a host of other musicians, The Dead Daisies provide a rocking set that has captured the curiosity of a lot of fans due to the impressive roster of artists.
Playing for only a short period of time, the group don’t disappoint as they rock through the set including the first single “Lock ‘N’ Load” as well as a big finish on “Helter Skelter”, a cover of course. Stevens’ voice is as powerful as ever and accompanied by the musicianship from some of rock’s biggest bands, The Dead Daisies pump out a nice big sound.
Finally after the lights go back out after the short break…and after a massive 28 year wait, it’s time for Aerosmith. Following a small video introduction to amp the crowd up that little bit more and a mass of smoke to shroud the catwalk, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry pop up and launch the band into “Love In An Elevator”.
Sporting an Indian Headdress, Tyler immediately oozes his rock and roll coolness all across the stage with what could be argued as terrible dancing, but still ever so cool. As the crowd chant back the ‘woahs’ and ‘yeahs’ during the opening number, this has straight away become one of the greatest concerts to hit the country in recent times.
From “Toys In The Attic” to “Jaded”, Tyler goes on to ask the people of Brisbane whether any babies have been born yet before telling one young lady that he loves every bone in her body…especially his.
“Cryin” has the entire audience singing along and going crazy when Tyler throws the harmonica he has been playing into the mosh. “Last Child” brings that great bluesy music into the set before “Janie’s Got A Gun” brings everything back down again.
An Aerosmith show has pretty much everything you could want in it and even in the members’ older years they still mahange to put on one hell of a show. Notably, sticksman Joey Kramer who delights the crowd with a roaring drum solo. Kramer smashes it out, with a little bit of help from Mr Tyler himself, though looking the entire time as though he is about to suffer a heart attack, Kramer gets through it and the band rip into another big one in “Living On The Edge”.
The set also contains a few covers including Fleetwood Macs “Stop Messing Around” which sees Mr Perry take over vocals for whilst slinking around the stage with his guitar. The next song by far takes the cake for biggest sing-a-long of the night and as the piano intro to the song starts, something very special takes place. Tyler belts out “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” just as well as he did when it was first released.
“What It Takes”, “Come Together”, “Dude Looks Like A Lady” and “Walk This Way” close out the main set before a piano gets wheeled out to the edge of the catwalk and yet again smoke fills the entire platform. The crowd erupts even more so than the start of the show as Tyler starts playing the notes to “Dream On” which sees both himself and Perry take to the top of the piano for a true rock moment.
Eventually finishing the night with some “Sweet Emotion”, Aerosmith prove why they have been labelled the biggest rock band from the US with a massive night of classic hits and big personalities on stage.
