Aerosmith, Motley Crue live!

Aerosmith, Motley Crue
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park
Thursday, October 5, 2006

“The Route Of All Evil Tour” was a fitting title to this fall’s Aerosmith and Motley Crue outing because both are known for partying, pyrotechnics, power ballads, and last but not least, flowing locks. Though the members of Aerosmith have toned down their off-stage antics, they remain vital on the concert trail, while the Crue continues creating controversy and craziness every step of the way. In pairing groups of this magnitude, fans were given the rare chance to kill two massive birds with one ticket price, though in turn they sacrificed the length of each act’s set, which was especially disappointing in Aerosmith’s case.

Steven Tyler and the boys left the Blue Army clearly begging for more after a skimpy 75-minute minute set that could very well have been extended another hour. While it has been five years since the legendary American rockers last released an album of entirely original material, the latest leg on its tour behind last year’s You Gotta Move live album yielded much more spontaneous and aggressive results than usual. Rather than sticking to the same songs from December’s show with Lenny Kravitz, Aerosmith dug out a mixture of monster smashes, early career chestnuts, blues tunes, and deep cuts.

“Toys In The Attic” kicked the night off showcasing a limber Tyler and searing Joe Perry strutting beyond the traditional stage down a Rolling Stones-styled catwalk. Though it was unusual to see this type of rigging extend into the Amphitheatre’s seating, it added an extra element of excitement in what wound up contributing to a near flawless (despite being only 13 songs) display of Aerosmith’s staying power.

The mixed bag of tricks was fully opened with smoky, ’70s throwback “Mama Kin,” the sole lighter-waver “Cryin,'” plus a pair of traditional electric blues assaults, “Baby, Please Don’t Go” and “Stop Messin’ Around.” After ramping on with that snarling onslaught, the group scaled back for an acoustic rendition of “Seasons Of Wither,” featuring a seated Tyler and Perry trading groans and licks on bar stools in the center of the audience. Their serenade of the cheaper seats continued with a show stopping rendition of “Dream On,” during which the frontman miraculously nailed all the high notes.

The old-school vibe continued with “Last Child,” though its 15-minute follow-up, “Rattle Snake,” offered a superb mixture of gut bucket blues and hard rock intensity. The time flew by so quickly throughout such captivating selections opening-set closers “Sweet Emotion” and “Draw The Line” left the faithful salivating for more, though even after many minutes of begging, they were only given a single encore. Aerosmith had no trouble keeping butts in seats for “Walk This Way,” but after banging it out, hung up their strings and sticks leaving countless stones unturned.

Even though Motley Crue used exactly the same amount of time, it was plenty considering the group has far fewer hits and hasn’t aged to nearly the same ferocious degree. Sure Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, and Nikki Sixx all look like real rock stars, but Neil in particular had a horrendous time hitting the majority of his notes and often relied on the audience to lend a hand. Like its bill mates, the Crue had absolutely nothing new to offer in terms of full-length studio albums, instead milking its 2005 retrospective, Red, White & Crue, for yet another trip through town. The show itself was a dialed-down version of last year’s even longer-winded “Carnival Of Sins Tour,” touching on the most familiar catalog cuts with a little less pageantry.

That wasn’t to say sparks didn’t fly every few seconds or that the light show was tame by any means, but its point was to further the spectacle come hair metal hits like “Dr. Feelgood” and “Shout At the Devil.” While each instrumental portion sounded generally similar to the album versions, Neil was laborious at best and attempted to overcompensate by running around the stage like a madmen and extending his microphone at least once a minute.

As a frontman, he remains a favorite with the audience despite aging gracelessly, though Lee remains equally as popular personality-wise on the drums. “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “Kickstart My Heart” aptly highlighted both egomaniacs, along with an incredibly decorated Mars, who turned in a pair of shred heavy solos to take the explosive production even further over the top. Yet at this point in the latest reunion’s shelf-life, the gang has overstayed its welcome.

— Andy Argyrakis

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly