Heavy Metal Gamer's Blog

You know when you see a concert, and at the end of the night, you just stand there, and soak in what you just witnessed. Last Wednesday night, that is how I felt, and it is not a bad thing either.

Every concert I have been to, for the most part, has left me just looking at the stage, and saying "wow, that was a fucking great concert" I have been lucky to see some of my favorite bands, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, and so on. I don't think I could really complain about any concerts I have seen, I mean KISS was a bit of a disappointment, but it could of been worse.

Wednesday August 8th, I went and seen Cheap Trick and Aerosmith, on The Global Warming Tour. This is the first time I have seen both bands.

Now I was a little skeptical about this show, first off I was never a huge Cheap Trick fan, I respect the band, but I only cared for like 2 songs.

After watching them play for about an hour and 10 minutes, I was very impressed. Cheap Trick is a very good hard rock band, they played a lot of their classics, and some of them I didn't even know, and I really enjoyed them. I gained a whole new level of respect for Cheap Trick, and the guitar work of that band is just amazing. Rick Neilsen is a helluva guitar player. During "Ain't That A Shame" Brad Whitford of Aerosmith was introduced on stage to play guitar with them, and that was really cool. I really like when another band brings up a member of another band on stage to play a song.

The last song they played was the Cheap Trick classic "Surrender" and Duff McKagan, who use to be in Guns N Roses, and a few other bands, came out on stage and played Surrender with the band, and that was cool. All and all, a very good start to the show.

Here is the setlist from the Cheap Trick portion of the concert:


Hello There
Elo Kiddies
California Man
On Top of the World
Ain't That a Shame (w/Brad Whitford)
I Know What I Want
Need Your Love
Stop This Game
Sick Man of Europe
The Flame
I Want You to Want Me
Dream Police
Surrender (w/Duff McKagan)


Now I wasn't done being skeptical about this concert. I was enjoying the concert so far, but I was a bit skeptical on how Aerosmith was going to sound, especially Steven Tyler, we all know how his past has been with drugs, booze, and other things, and of course he was on American Idol, and hopefully that hasn't gone to his head, although he is no longer on that show, which is a saving grace. Aerosmith opened the show with "Draw the Line" which is one of my favorite Aerosmith songs, and Steven Tyler sounded awesome, I don't know if it was having a night off between Washington and California, but damn did he kick ass.

After that song, they jumped into "Love In An Elevator" and from then on out, the show was just amazing. The band sounded great, Steven Tyler sounded awesome, and I was speechless by the end of the show.

Joey Kramer's drum solo, holy shit, that was one of the best drum solos I have ever seen, the funniest part was when he threw his drum sticks into the crowd, and used his fists, and his head to play the drums. Not only that, Steven Tyler joined him in the drum solo, playing on the same drum set right with him.

Then Joe Perry, ended up singing a few songs, and they were almost like a blues themed song, and they were really good, and a lot of people say Joe Perry is a arrogant prick, and all of that, but he seemed very humble and enjoyed himself, and I think the crowd helped, with getting into the music. I have noticed one thing about Washington State, and that is any concert you go to, the crowd enjoys the music. I know when I have seen AC/DC in the past, the crowd loved it, and the band loved the crowd getting into it. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, KISS, Queensryche, all the bands would mention how great the crowd is. Sure they do it to all places, but they seem to have been very impressed. Most crowds you see in concert videos, they don't get into it as much. Then again the Tacoma/Seattle area is big with music, especially Seattle.

Here is the setlist from the Aerosmith portion of the show:

Draw the Line
Love in an Elevator
Same Old Song and Dance
Livin' on the Edge
Oh Yeah
Last Child
Drum Solo
Rag Doll
The Peter Gunn Theme
Boogie Man
Combination
Stop Messin' Around (Fleetwood Mac cover)
What It Takes
Legendary Child
Come Together (The Beatles cover)
Rats In The Cellar
Sweet Emotion
Walk This Way

Encore:
Dream On
Train Kept A-Rollin' (Tiny Bradshaw cover)

The encore was amazing, Dream On has never sounded so damn good, and the crowd was into every single song on this setlist, even the new songs "Oh Yeah" and "Legendary Child" were kick ass songs, which I have a feeling the next Aerosmith album is going to kick major ass.

Aerosmith also played my favorite song from them, even though it is a cover, I find their cover of "Train Kept A-Rollin" to be better then the original. Such an amazing song. Especially live.

Aerosmith played a 2 hour and 15 minute set, and I left the show with my hearing a bit shitty, my voice was gone, and all the songs from both bands, stuck in my head, but the show was amazing. I would put this in my top 3 favorite concerts. Right there with AC/DC, and of course Judas Priest, Black Label Society and Thin Lizzy, and I would probably even throw Iron Maiden in there as a tie, but damn did I enjoy myself. Cheap Trick and Aerosmith both delivered kick ass music.

One thing I was truely amazed at was no pyrotechnics. No fireworks, none of that. Which I think is quite nice, don't get me wrong, I like a few pyrotechnics, like what AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest use, but Aerosmith didn't need them. They don't have to pull a KISS and use all that stuff to make things better, and KISS goes way overboard with that. Not saying pyrotechnics and stage props are bad, but sometimes they are not needed.

Aerosmith had a damn good setlist, even though they are missing classics like "Toys In The Attic", "Mama Kin", "Dude Looks Like A Lady", and "Janie's Got A Gun", it was still awesome.

If you haven't seen Aerosmith, go check them out, they put on a great show, especially if you like classic rock, or hard rock music.

I hope you enjoyed this little blog/review of the concert, and thanks for taking the time to read it \,,/