Aerosmith
Rockin' the Joint

THE REVIEW

We are in the year 2002, music is shifting towards more pop and commercial sounds, leaving rock aside, so old-school rock bands have found themselves in difficulty. Aerosmith tried to mix rock with pop and electronic in "Just Push Play," an album that didn't achieve much success, despite containing some significant tracks.

Now let's talk about our subject, the live performance of Aerosmith in Las Vegas at the Hardrock Hotel. In fact, this live show turns out to be perfectly in tune with the excessive ambiance of Las Vegas. It begins with Tyler welcoming the audience. The concert opens with an "oriental" riff that introduces "Beyond Beautiful", a song played perfectly with some very beautiful guitar solos. Tyler's singing is at its best, and what surprises me is that despite his age, he still sings as if he were in his prime and has even improved his voice. The performance moves on to "Same Old Song and Dance", a song from the second album, perfect here and in a very "hardened" version, making it very Hard Rock. Perry even finds space for some improvisational solos. The next song is "No More No More", a track from "Toys in the Attic", a song that some might have forgotten, but here it stands strong. In fact, it too has been toughened up and Steven enriches it with a nice high note. The next piece is a real gem called "Season of Wither", and they even found a way to harden this song, although it remains a ballad, and the leader performs it incredibly well.
"Light Inside", from "Just Push Play," is played well, but I don't like it. The chorus is depressing, and frankly, the Bostonians still need to explain to me why they included it; they could have easily put in a "Dream On" or something from the '80s. Well, a flaw had to be there, but we make up for it with "Draw the Line", certainly in its best version. Here too, it's much more Hard Rock than the original (and also longer, as it lasts 7 minutes). The notes of a piano introduce us to "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", a song not completely digested by the fans, who consider it too commercial (myself included), but here it's different, it's more rocking and there's a guitar solo by Perry. The next song is "Big Ten Inch Record", a rockabilly revival, contained in "Toys in the Attic", very accelerated here.
Now it's time for a track that early Aerosmith used to play in clubs, called "Rattlesnake Shake", a cover of Fleetwood Mac, which lasts a long time due to the improvisation by Perry and Whitford having fun with the guitars. The drums introduce the classic "Walk This Way", played well as usual, and it concludes with the cover "Train Kept a Rollin", perfect as always.

In conclusion, this live performance seems to be a response to those who say that Aerosmith is finished and has nothing more to say. In my opinion, they will still manage to make themselves heard. The only drawback of this live is perhaps that there are too few songs, but let's be content.

PS: this is my first review.