If those flight cases could talk that rolled into Lititz, Pennsylvania. for pre-tour rehearsal a week prior as Aerosmith kicked off their “Peace Out Tour” Farewell 50th Anniversary Tour at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.
Philadelphia was the first of 40 dates running up to January 2024 for Aerosmith’s Dirty Honey. It was almost showtime as the video screens presented a documentary of the band’s history with a countdown clock to when they would take the stage.
The show began as The Toxic Twins lead and looked like rock stars should look and always have. Leading the Bad Boys Of Boston riding high into Philly, The Demon Of Screaming Steven Tyler with his Gunslinging brother in music Joe F’n Perry and Mr. Brad Whitford on the other guitar, Tom Sweet E Hamilton on bass – They each rose together in black cowboy hats to start the show on a platform that rose from underneath the stage behind the drums, to an opened backstage in the form of a letter A straight into “Back In The Saddle”, the first of 18 songs that lasted close to 2 hours. The set list spanned their many hits and gems in the celebration of their 50 Years Of Music.
Additional touring musicians consisted of Buck Johnson on keyboards and background vocals, Seth Stachowski on sax, and Suzie McNeil also on background vocals. John Douglas is on drums filling in for original drummer Joey Kramer. John’s bass drumhead is The Philly Love Park logo, a nod to Philly! Steven Tyler’s voice can still climb those notes that we’ve come to love. Not too many can touch his stage swagger with that mic stand filled with scarves and harmonicas. Rock stars don’t wear reading glasses on stage and when you’re 75 years young, you need a few big teleprompters to help out.
They can’t play all of their songs with a catalog as deep as theirs but a few highlights for me?
Steven mentioned the Spectrum and playing Philly for 40 Years, and not forgetting “the big bang theory” years also telling us he has family in Philly.
“No More, No More”, Steven’s favorite song, (which Buck Johnson told me they had been rehearsing when he called into my show), the beautiful haunting “Seasons Of Wither”, “Adam’s Apple” and “Rats In The Cellar”.
Joe Perry paid tribute to the late Jeff Beck one of his heroes from The Yardbirds who passed away in January of this year. Joe played Jeff Beck’s white Fender Stratocaster that Jeff’s wife gave to him to “keep Jeff’s spirit alive.” He played the guitar while telling the story center stage on a stool with Steven and even mentioned how they wrote “Movin’ Out”.
I also love when Joe does the totally blues-soaked Fleetwood Mac’s “Stop Messing Around”, written by the late, great Peter Green. I adore that Joe makes it his own.
Tom Hamilton hit those opening chords to “Sweet Emotion” and 25,000 people automatically rose to their feet. The stage was very open, meaning it was “in the round” with the audience sitting behind the stage so that Steven, Joe, Brad, and Tom could all work their way around the stage with ramps leading out to the crowd also on stage left and right.
The video screens were crystal clear as the inflatable angel wings hung and unfolded from the ceiling with 4 gigantic toys an elephant, a frog, a gnome, and a teddy bear that were used during “Toys In The Attic”.
They encored with “Dream On” and Steven on his beautiful white piano at center stage filled with billowing smoke, singing each word with a passion that is still so relevant today.
Closing out Aerosmith’s Peace Out Tour Philly show was the young Frankenstein-inspired “Walk This Way” with that iconic legendary guitar riff as the streamer and confetti canyons showered us! And that was all she wrote.
Cheers to 50 Years of Aerosmith Rock and Roll! 5 Decades of great music, songs, videos, and memorable tours. We will hold on to them tightly. Thank you for making us very happy with your gifts… but now it’s time to bid you sweet adieu. We Love You Aerosmith! Enjoy retirement. -And if you want to come back around, we will be right here waiting to do it all over again with you!
The Black Crowes will be supporting Aerosmith’s Peace Out Tour which is a perfect twin bill of healthy good ol’ rock and roll. The band was led by Chris Robinson in his red and black Pin Striped Suit and his younger brother Rich Robinson on the guitar. They bring it with a 6 piece band and two gospel backup singers. The Crowes played close to an hour with 11 songs in their set and always delivered no matter how small the space they had in front of Aerosmith was.
Coming right out of the gates with “Sting Me” & “Kicking My Heart Around” were perfectly placed. Highlights for me were “Thick N Thin”, “By Your Side”, “Thorn In My Pride” and “Jealous Again”. Remember, I am a huge Black Crowes fan, and even hosted them last year in Atlantic City! (I even got some quality time with both brothers backstage.) Chris made me smile when he mentioned playing The Spectrum with Aerosmith on their 1990 Pump Tour.
It was nice watching the show with Black Crowes manager Philly’s Mark Didida, who also manages Dirty Honey! Surprisingly enough, the Dirty Honey band (currently supporting Guns N’ Roses World Tour in North America) stopped by to catch the show and some songs with me at our Wells Fargo Center. The DH band loves Philly and it showed last night, our listeners were shocked standing elbow to-elbow with a band that will be joining us for our MMRBQ!
All in all, we will “Shake Our Money Makers” again! Until next the next show, bloodsuckers.
xoxoxo
BamBam