Aerosmith and ZZ Top in Las Vegas
Review by the Phantom Jackass.
Rating: 
Steve Tyler and Joe Perry
I’m afraid this is the concert that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Last year saw a large group of classic rock concerts hitting the road, with Boston, Journey, Heart, Styx, anybody who was around back in the seventies was back again last summer. And of all the shows, only Journey and Trans-Siberian Orchestra were worth the trouble it took to get there.
This year it’s slim pickins. Only ZZ Top and Aerosmith together were promised to be the show of the year. Local papers were stating, “If you see only one concert all year, this is it!”
Unfortunately, the cost and the trouble to get to it and stay through it far outweighed the enjoyment.
You would think the hottest bands in America over the past 30 years playing in the hottest American resort town during a hot summer with hot babes wearing next-to-nothing would be a veritable gift from the rock gods. Instead, it was a battle to fight the traffic, with all valet parking being filled hours before the show leaving hundreds of cars anxiously roaming in search of a place to park before the show started.
Then to get anything to eat was a one hour wait (shit, even Mickey D’s had a line of about fifty people waiting). Once getting into the Grand Garden Arena you are immediately subjected to loud drunks and sixty-year-old women in spandex mini-dresses sloshing beer all over you. After a long wait you’re subjected to the ultimate in pathetic entertainment: a Guitar Hero Aerosmith mini-concert of two kids playing on their X-Box guitars. Another fifteen minutes of nothing, then you start hearing coyotes howling over
ZZ Top
the loudspeakers.
When ZZ Top hit the stage they opened with a set of 6 songs which I didn’t recognize anything and neither did the crowd. Billy Gibbons kept having to ask, “Are you still with us?” just because the audience just wasn’t being very supportive. It was only after they said, “We’re going to go wayyy back” that the audience perked. They did “Legs (with the furry guitars),” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “La Grange” and “Tush,” while their eighties videos played behind them on the video wall. When they finished “Tush” they just walked off the stage never to return. No waving, no bowing, no thank yous. Excuse me, where the hell was “Viva Las Vegas?”
Then came an hour wait before Aerosmith hit the stage, which really blew the momentum all to shit. By the time they hit the stage I was ready to leave. This, however, gave the drunks enough time to engage in shouting and whistling contests.
Joe Perry and Steve Tyler: The Toxic Twins
I’m not really sure if it was the band…I really don’t know, but I was really looking forward to this show for months and when I was there it was just plain, damned disappointing. Steve and company played an energetic set. They had the whole lights and stage effects thing going on. It was Slash’s birthday, so they dragged him out to do a blues guitar thing. There was little between-song banter. Joe Perry, it seems, had an off night: seemed like he was hitting a lot of wrong notes. And, IMHO, the mixing was so hot you could barely tell what songs were being played.
Highlights were “Love in an Elevator” with the lighting rigs moving up and down like elevators, “Sweet Emotion” with the theramin solo, jamming with Slash and Joe Perry’s standing on simulated flames guitar solo.
Low points were, well, an hour to get into the MGM and find a place to park, stampeding into the arena, waiting an hour before Aerosmith goes on, beer being spilled all over me, people who could NOT stay the hell down in their seats running back and forth every ten seconds milling about like ants, grannies in their hot pants and miniskirts embarassingly dancing in the aisles while elbowing everyone in the eye and toppling over, the arena drunks throwing shit and screaming obnoxiously, not being able to see very much because people won’t sit in their damned seats, the mix being painful…ah, hell, you get my point. Yeah, I think I’m gettin’ too damned old to keep going to these things.
Studio54 After Concert Flyer
Half-way through “Walk This Way” I decided to bail. Looks like the only thing I missed was Joe Perry doing a Guitar Hero battle with himself and yet another blues jam.
At the same time all the other shows at MGM were letting out so you get caught up in the massive stampede of Aerosmith, KA and David Copperfield all stampeding to the parking garages resulting in a two hour delay getting the hell out of there. The only memorable moment of the evening was seeing two hot gals dressed in very revealing lingerie walking through the MGM lobby, causing whiplash and men to slap their foreheads.
I was originally thinking there was nothing wrong with the bands, it was just the venue, but I was also hoping to find some cool merchandise, but all both bands seemed to have was T-Shirts: No DVDs, no CDs, posters, hats, lighters, no signed stuff…zilch. At least nothing I could find in the three booths I looked at. Lack of good merchandise and Aerosmith going on late were band issues.
Ah well, it’s like your first sexual experience where the expectations far excede the actual participation.
Videos and Setlists:
Tush
2009 ZZ Top Set List
1. Got Me Under Pressure
2. Waitin’ for the Bus
3. Jesus Just Left Chicago
4. Chevrolet
5. Pincushion
6. Future Blues
7. Cheap Sunglasses
8. I Need You Tonight
9. Catfish Blues
10.Foxey Lady
11.Heard It On The X
12.Just Got Paid
13.Gimme All Your Lovin’
14.Sharp Dressed Man
15.Legs
16.La Grange
17.Tush
Love in an Elevator
2009 Las Vegas AEROSMITH setlist:
1.Eat The Rich
2.Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees)
3.Rag Doll
4.I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
5.Unknown (with Slash)
6.Last Child
7.Combination
8.Love In An Elevator
9.Cryin’
10.Livin’ on the Edge
11.Bass and Drum Solo
12.Sweet Emotion
13.Walk This Way
Encore:
14.Guitar Hero Solo
15.Train Kept a Rollin’ (Tiny Bradshaw cover)
Loading ...UPDATE: Steven Tyler Had a Great Fall
Steven Tyler, the charismatic singer in Aerosmith, fell off the stage at a concert during a motorcycle rally in South Dakota on Wednesday night and was reportedly airlifted to a local hospital with neck and shoulder injuries.
The Rapid City Journal is reporting that Tyler took a dive shortly after the legendary rockers began their song ‘Love In an Elevator’ at the famed Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Apparently, the sound system had cut out. A witness told reporters that he tottered backward and fell from the stage and was promptly helped up by security, but was then taken backstage.
——————————————————————————–
Guitarist Joe Perry emerged and told the audience that his lead singer was heading to the hospital.
Mike Sanborn of the Buffalo Chip Campground, where the concert was held, said Tyler was in “good spirits” as he was ushered away.
“He was good natured about it,” he told the Associated Press. “He was talking and joking with the physician.”
This was the first time Aerosmith had performed at the rally, and promoters had earlier predicted the band would draw the biggest crowd in South Dakota history. The number of bummed-out fans has not been released.
Popularity: 15% [?]
“When ZZ Top hit the stage they opened with a set of 6 songs which I didn’t recognize anything and neither did the crowd. ”
Wait… you’ve NEVER heard of Under Pressure, Waiting for the Bus or Jesus Just Left Chicago? You’re being serious? I just find that hard to believe that a music critic, over the age of 30, who has heard of Aerosmith and ZZ Top can honestly state that he has never heard of those songs. That’s like a race car driver saying he’s never heard of a Chevy Bel Air. Yeah, it’s not new today, or in production, but it’s the foundation of that company and if you know your craft, you know.
Okay, yeah, Under Pressure, but the others, sorry. And I’m not a professional critic, I do this for shits and giggles, hence the Phantom Jackass handle.