AEROSMITH Live in Manila Global Warming World Tour

When In Manila, the granddaddies of hard/funk rock will be performing Live in Manila for the first time as Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and the rest of AEROSMITH (finally!) play their greatest hits at the SM Mall of Asia Arena for a one-night-only concert this May 8, 2013.

I was still part of my daddy’s spermatozoa army when AEROSMITH released “Mama Kin” and “Dream On” as part of their seminal self-titled album (available in vinyl!). In other words, I would not pretend to know everything about AEROSMITH and their music. Heck, listening to their earlier albums as I write this piece (oh yes, contrary to popular belief, we responsible bloggers research about our topics) I realized how unfortunately late I was in discovering AEROSMITH‘s music. The first singles I heard from the band were those from Get A Grip – you know, the one with Alicia Silverstone constantly reappearing as a teenage wild child in the music videos. That was I believe the last of the true great albums of AEROSMITH. Not that I didn’t enjoy some songs from their later releases, but if you’re talking about quality albums as a whole, that could have very well been the last.

AEROSMITH: “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band”

Steve Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer, otherwise known as “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” AEROSMITH, began playing together as early as 1970. During that decade, they released some of the best Rock material to date, with songs such as “Dream On”, “Sweet Emotion”, “Walk This Way”, “Toys in the Attic”, “Last Child”, “Rats in the Cellar”, and The Beatles cover “Come Together” pervading the air waves and the drug-inspired album Rocks being identified as a major influence in the musical formation of later Rock legends like GNR’s Slash (who is coming to Manila this summer as well. Oh boy!), Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and Metallica’s James Hetfield.

The band did not stay together for the entirety of their 40 years of existence. Musically, the band suffered as Joe Perry and Brad Whitford left the band in the early 80’s. It was only in their album Permanent Vacation that the band regained form, the first of three consecutive albums that cemented AEROSMITH as musical icons. (Pump and Get A Grip are the other two.) AEROSMITH continued to enjoy commercial success as they released Nine Lives and Just Push Play, but fans who were drawn to their sexually suggestive lyrics and hard/funk rock music during the 70’s and 80’s would find a departure from their roots – sex has been replaced by love (with a little sex in it), and the sound is categorically more Pop than Hard or Funk. What continually improved was the band’s chemistry and Steven Tyler‘s screaming vocal range during live performances. Try listening to “Dream On” circa 1970 and compare it to a live performance from the past decade. (Go, do it.) And if you did, you’d probably agree with me.