Mommy, make it stop!

[Pilgrim]

Did anyone else catch the band playing in the half-hour before the NCAA men's final?

I think the perpetrators may have been Aerosmith, but if not them, then I apologize for demeaning them.

A frickin' cacophony of sound. Guitar wanking, incoherent babbling and screaming, gratuitous rolling around on the stage. I'd much rather they had showed commercials for ED. At least I could look away from that.   

The second number showed that it was indeed Aerosmith. That was an improvement, in that I could understand the lyrics and follow the music. The wanking factor was somewhat less.

Disappointing, as I'm an Aerosmith fan, but I didn't like this performance.

[dadagoboi]

Wayne Newton wasn't available?

[uwe]

This here?



A little sluggish, but nothing too awful. I've seen Aerosmith in totally knackered and in excellent state. They are generally a very hard working act. But TV sound can ruin any performance and sometimes it takes a couple songs to get it right. From other songs of that evening where Tyler is giving instructions re his in-ear-monitoring, it also seems like he couldn't hear himself properly.

Ok, the still youthful abandon of these days here is gone, but that was almost a quarter of a century ago.



And this here, after all, almost half a centruy ago ...

[westen44]

I just ran across this while reading through Google news.  Maybe this provides some insight. 

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/news/a54281/aerosmith-macklemore/

[uwe]

Kind of obvious to invite a modern rapper to THAT SONG. Ever since RUN DMC adopted it, it's become a synonym for fusion culture. Funnily enough, I never liked the original - well, that's not exactly right, I liked Perry's solo on the original version -
in the mid-seventies when it came out though it was the first Aerosmith track I heard. (Their neo-New York Dolls look attracted me long before I heard any of their music, German critics panned them as 2nd rate Zeppelinists and Stones lookalikes, neither description was apt, Aerosmith had very much a sound of their own, kind of turbo-charged J. Geils Band with more riffage.)

Who knows what influence that song had. I did find though that Aerosmith always sounded blacker and more funky than other white hard rock bands.

[Dave W]

I just ran across this while reading through Google news.  Maybe this provides some insight. 

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/news/a54281/aerosmith-macklemore/

So glad I didn't watch it! Macklemore, what a no-talent douche.

[westen44]

Despite being around Aerosmith's music a lot because of friends who like it, I never felt like I was able to fully identify with their music.  It would be hard for me to fully describe their music because I'm not sure if I was ever able to completely relate to it.  For instance, I never understood why Aerosmith was placed with metal in record/CD stores.  Their music probably is blacker and funkier than some other hard rock, but that's a little hard for me to relate to also.  I do like hard rock, though.  That's for sure.  Also, I can probably somewhat appreciate Aerosmith even if I may have never been able to fully delve into their music.  I definitely like their work ethic.  They could be sitting on their couches, but they're still touring the world.  Also, it's possible they'll even do another album or two. 

That idea to invite Macklemore may have been something that sounded better in theory than in real life.  I don't know any details about that other than that article.  "Walk This Way" was also never one of my favorite songs by them, either.  Tom Hamilton said he doesn't like it because he messed up a little on the recording.  But that live performance was pretty bad (because of Macklemore, obviously.)  It sounds like they didn't even rehearse it beforehand. 

[Granny Gremlin]

I don't think Macklemore can be single-handedly blamed for ruining this, but fine, not as if I'm gonna defend that (can't understand his lyrics in that vid but obvious they're a new addition vs any previous version).

But we must also remember, the toxic twins pre-approved this (including not realising that nobody wants to hear that stupid intro anymore, especially if it's just Tylers vocal bit poorly executed without the drums and guitar wankage to take the edge off, and def not a second time reprised after Mack's bit).  Macklemore is just the hired gun here (Thirft Shop is a pretty good track; can't speak to anything else).  Areosmith themselves are not in top form there either. 

They play it much faster here (a bit too much methinks, but still within reasonable limits) and the intro actually works:



LOL at the zombie walk after the first chorus.

Despite being around Aerosmith's music a lot because of friends who like it, I never felt like I was able to fully identify with their music.

Yep, same here.  I always like the RunDMC collab and the Pump LP was cool (came out when I had my paper route - a whole winter of seeing the Janie's Got a Gun vid every Saturday morning on the Hit Music Vid countdown rerun from Friday night as I put the paper sections together before delivery and then Hockey practise; hard to tell if I actually liked it or if it was just hammerred into me brain via repetition). Pretty much ignored them all the way through highschool (they started to suck after Pump) and only came back onto my radar (classic stuff only) at the end when we moved across town and I switched schools.

[westen44]

Since I did have to be around Aerosmith's music a lot, I feel I would have obviously enjoyed myself more if I had liked it more.  Also, I feel people like Uwe may be hearing something in their music that I'm just not hearing.  Nevertheless, something like this is subjective, needless to say. 

[Pilgrim]

I've always been a big Aerosmith fan, which is one reason I was disappointed in that performance.

[Highlander]

I saw the Rocks tour... not seen them since... they've made a lot of great music, imho... mostly...

[westen44]

One of Aerosmith's recent concerts which has got a lot of positive reviews was the 2014 Donington concert.  It wasn't on TV as much as the 2011 Japan concert, but I thought Donington was better. 

[uwe]

I was never a great Aerosmith fan either, but I appreciated that they kept their original line-up thru decades and that they forged their own sound, especially in their CBS years. To me, they sounded very American (even with all that Yardbirds and Beatles influence in their sound) without being too hamfisted (they were nuanced) or too smooth (they were raunchier in sound than almost anything else as popular at the time, those Jack Douglas productions did not emasculate them). Plus they were neither Southern Rock nor West Coast, their music was very urban. After their 80ies reunion, all these outside writers and the ballads came in, but even that did not dilute their sound beyond recognition.

Tyler's voice has held up well (he has an amazing range) and I prefer Whitford's more terse playing (his work with Derek St. Holmes is a gem, they have a new album out too) to the more flamboyant, yet obvious Joe Perry. The rhythm section is vastly underrated and actually really smart. Tom Hamilton undersells himself, which is nice of him, but not warranted.

They are not a metal band, not even a heavy rock one, just a hard rock outfit with (live) a slightly frantic air to them (a similarity to fellow Bostonians J. Geils Band). And for all their sartorial splendor, they were never LA Glam either though later Mötley Crüe certainly took them as a musical inspiration in a dumbed down way.

They're touring Germany this year, I bought tickets as a last hurray.

[gearHed289]

I was briefly a big fan in my very early teens. I fell off after Draw the Line. Saw them on that tour at the Aragon in Chicago. Tyler and Perry were wasted. Whitford did the heavy lifting guitar-wise. I was only 14, but it was noticeable, and I was impressed. (side note - the very next day was the first time I heard Van Halen's debut, but that's another story). They definitely had a little more funk than the average boogie rock band. Walk This Way has been played to death, but I think it's a great bass groove with a few tasty licks thrown in. I've played it a million times in cover bands, and I always play it with a pick. Not sure if Hamilton did or not.

[uwe]

Pick! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVOf974KJO4&list=PLB9S1eLtPHXTzZ1dyc9kXq4ctgY5ukYo7

Poor Tom was supposedly aghast when he heard that isolated track decades later for the first time - because of all of the accidental dead notes, imprecise fretting and general light sloppiness, "Is that really me?!". And the producer/engineer said: "But that is exactly the charm of your playing!" I think he's right. There are bands with monolithic precision - Judas Priest, Accept or Rammstein come to mind - and there are bands where all the separate parts "move a little". Aerosmith on a good night are shit-tight, but not robotic, that suits their music. Play this stuff too precise and you end up sounding like the Dan Reed Network.