Aerosmith, Austin, Texas, review

The opening song flagged up their intentions perfectly. It was Mama Kin, from their 1973 debut album, a full-tilt rocker which they played with exhilarating ferocity. The way guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford stood shoulder to shoulder with bassist Tom Hamilton, binding together over Joey Kramer's thunderous drumbeat, was a real band-of-brothers moment.

Indeed, their whole set was designed as a reminder of the band's raw and bluesy early days, and downplayed material from their late-Eighties comeback. Also from the debut album was the ultra-ballad Dream On, rather luridly performed by Tyler rising through the ramp built out into the audience seated at a white grand piano.

Other standouts included a fiery Livin' On The Edge and a version of the indestructible Walk This Way, where Whitford and Perry demonstrated how to deploy two guitars to maximum effect.

All those new fans from their reborn-on-MTV era had to make do with Dude (Looks Like A Lady) and Rag Doll, while items from the new album sort of sloped past hoping not to sound too conspicuous. Tyler, in between twirling and swaggering like a pantomine drag queen, still has a staggeringly powerful set of lungs, so much so that I had to stick my fingers in my ears at several points.

Plaudits, too, to support band Cheap Trick, who played a blinder of an opening set. True, it leaned heavily on their Seventies hits - I Want You To Want Me, Ain't That A Shame, Surrender - but they still play with panache, and guitarist Rick Nielsen now behaves like a cranky old vaudevillian, the George Burns of rock. Aerosmith like them so much that Steve Tyler and Brad Whitford popped in for guest appearances.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568841/s/25ad8857/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Cmusic0Clive0Emusic0Ereviews0C96839710CAerosmith0EAustin0ETexas0Ereview0Bhtml/story01.htm

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