The concert I wrote a review on is Aerosmith: Rock for the Rising Run. The group started their tour on March 2011 in Japan. This was when Japan was in crisis after an earthquake and a tsunami destroyed their lives. Also, a nuclear plant had suffered a major meltdown and spreading radiation throughout the land in the city of Fukushima. Many people had suffered in this tragedy and people started to lose hope in the world. But Aerosmith decided to step in and make the people of Japan feel hope again. They decided to throw a concert for them and played some of their greatest hits like “Sweet Emotion”, “Toys in the Attic”, “Walk this Way” and many more. Also, the band was very excited to be playing in Japan once again where all the fans love them and would do anything to see them play live. People in Japan say they are the one true rock and roll band in the world. Aerosmith showed the people of Japan how to rock and roll and have a good time playing music.
Aerosmith was formed together in 1970 in Sunapee, New Hampshire by Steven Tyler (Vocals), Joe Perry (Guitar), Tom Hamilton (Bass), Brad Whitford (Guitar), and Joey Kramer (Drummer). They were a group of kids that wanted to play instruments and perform and create great rock and roll music. All five band members decided to move to New York City to see if they can find someone to help them sign with a record company and make them an official band. They would perform in small places like clubs or cafes to make money, until one day a man named Clive Davis saw their talent at Max’s Kansas City in New York and signed them up to Columbia Records to record their music.
Their first hit song was “Dream on” and everyone loved listening to it on the radio station. Their first successful tour was in 1976 called Dream On and while on the road they wrote their next big greatest hit song “Walk this Way” in 1977. In the future, they would make amazing music with their talent for making that audience scream and cheer for them. But things started to go downhill for the band after their first tour together. In the late 70’s band members Tyler and Perry and started to take drugs and get high while performing on stage. Together their nickname in the band was the toxic twins because anytime they would take drugs, they become intoxicated around other people.
But somehow they managed to write and perform great music for audience members and record companies. Aerosmith continued to make great music throughout the late 70’s and the early 80’s. Then the band started to crumble in pieces. In 1979, Perry and Tyler had differences of how to correctly write the songs in their own way, but in the end, it caused Perry to quit the band and begin a solo career.
Later that year, Drummer Joey Kramer decided to depart from the band to join another band to play the drums. All there was left in the Aerosmith family was Steven Tyler, Tom Hamilton, and Brad Whitford. They didn’t state recording music until three years later after the departure of two band members. Their album was all right, but it wasn’t the same without the other two band members. But in 1984, the original five members met backstage at a concert and decided to re-form the band Aerosmith again. Once they started to record music again their first album back together was Done with mirrors. Then they did a collaboration with Run DMC with their song “Walk this Way” and it hit number four on the pop chart.
Throughout the 80’s they made great music and great albums. In 1990, they received a Grammy for best rock performance by a group with vocals. But through the 90s, the band hit re-entered rough waters again. While they were working on a new album, Joey Kramer just lost his father and began to enter into a state of depression and started to lose sight of making music with the band. Also, Tyler was denying that he was taking drugs and getting wasted on stage. So the two band members took a break from Aerosmith in the 90s but returned in the 2000s.
Through the 2000s, Aerosmith started to go downhill again for the band and fans were worried about them. Again two members took a break from the band because Perry ruptured a blood vessel and Hamilton was getting treatment for throat cancer. But the rest of the band members in Aerosmith was still making great music without the two main members of the group. In the early 2010s, Steven Tyler checked himself into rehab for drug use and was out in one year. In 2011, they decided to throw a concert for the people in Japan because they wanted to give people hope after their natural disaster with tsunamis, power plant leaks, and an earthquake.
Their last tour in Japan was in 1977 and the people loved their performance. When they return to Japan, everyone was a fan of Aerosmith and was waiting for a great live concert to watch and enjoy. In March 2011, Japan had suffered a major disaster and the band Aerosmith decided to throw a concert to entertain and give hope to people of japan. They band went to Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya, and Sapporo in Japan and the crowd was crazy and appreciated Aerosmith for performing a concert live for them. They day I watched this concert on DVD was on February 20, 2016.
The group performed great rock and roll music in front of everybody and fans were astonished at how they did a great job on stage. Reporters said that Aerosmith was a group that loved and respected each other and acted like a family. This was the one group that would never replace anyone in the band and would support each other no matter what happens with them.
The songs that they performed on stage was: “Draw the Line”, “Love in an Elevator”, “Livin on the edge”, “Hangman Jury”, and many more songs that people enjoy listening too. I thought the whole concert was awesome and memorable to watch for me. When I first saw the live performance in Hiroshima, I was astonished that Aerosmith still had the talent to sing and perform in front of a live audience after all those years in the music business. Steven Tyler would scream and shout his songs towards the audience and Whitford, Hamilton, and Perry would play their guitars and basses to make incredible riffs to entertain the audience.
Also, the drummer Kramer would pound and hit the drums to make a beat to the songs they were performing. When Kramer did a drum solo for the song “Listen to the Thunder” it was awesome. He would start by playing the drums with his drumsticks then he stopped and threw his drumsticks into the audience, and then he showed his bare bruised hands to the audience and played the drums with his hands. It was amazing to me because he was able to play the whole song on the drums with his hands and was able to keep the rhythm and beat of the song. That’s the one thing I saw that really caught my eye.
The other live concerts I’ve seen on DVD or online are different than the Aerosmith live concert in 2011. Like I watched a Nickelback live concert on DVD and they just did a regular performance on stage in 2007. It wasn’t anything special, they just performed, sang a couple of songs, did the concert in one place, and that was it. Unlike the Aerosmith concert, where they had a purpose of going to Japan and performing in front of the fans, they wanted to go there to give the people hope and courage to overcome the disaster that hit them and ruin their lives. The people were actually grateful that they band showed up in their time of need, the fans were happy and thanking the band members for giving them a great show to watch and remember forever. Both groups live performances were playing rock and roll music but I think Aerosmith did a better job organizing and planning this concert in Japan than Nickelback’s concert at Sturgis.
The things I liked in this concert was the songs performed, the drum solo that Kramer did, and how the band decided to support Japan by throwing a concert for the people of Japan. The one thing I didn’t like in the concert was how half the band members had no shirts on or opened shirts where you can see their chest. I mean you can go crazy on stage by screaming and yelling at the microphone and playing an instrument, but for god’s sakes man but on a shirt and cover your body. We came to your show to watch you sing and play, not watch you going crazy and shirtless. Overall it was a good concert to watch on DVD and write a review on.
