Key Note News Reporter: Robbie
Concert Review: Charlotte, N.C.
Okay here we go!
Let's start with opening act, Lenny Kravitz. Lenny and his band were probably the best sounding and tightest live act, I've ever seen! Just spot on all the way through. He either has a Fender Amplifier endorsement or else he just uses them for the cool retro look, because he had 8 foot tall Fender stacks, that created a solid wall all the way across!
BUT, the guitar heads were HEAVILY modified. Probably by Reinhold Bogner who is the main man for amp modifications in the world. Their guitar sounds were the BEST I have ever heard in a concert venue. Crisp, sharp, buttery, full, tons of sustain. Just perfect.
Lenny and his other guitarists have definitely mastered the "Two Guitar Attack" that I have spoken of. Whenever they played a song that did not have two distinct guitar parts...one or the other of them would simply stop playing. And they work so well together that, for instance, in one song the other guitarist was playing the rhythm guitar while Lenny was singing and suddenly Lenny started playing rhythm and the other guitar player IMMEDIATELY stopped playing. They were just in perfect sync.
And the drummer? Lenny's drummer is a girl. We've all seen her on the video for "Go My Way" some years ago. That bitch is the baddest ass drummer you will EVER see!!! I play on Wednesday nights with Odell Scott playing drums. And Odell is a POWERFUL drummer. Well, this bitch makes Odell sound like he hits like a grandma!!!
And she is RIGHT ON THE MONEY all the way through!!! As powerful as she is and as hard as she drums, I NEVER detected any meter problems at all. Just awesome. And not only that, but she has a head full of dreadlocks and slings her hair the whole time she's playing and it is a fantastic visual!
Lenny's "last" song of the evening was "Let Love Rule" and after they did the "regular" version of it they stopped and Lenny began playing a funk pattern on guitar. Then that BAD ASS DRUMMER BITCH came in with a syncopated hi hat and reversed (snare on downbeat, kick on up) drum pattern and they TORE IT UP musically!!! He had a great sax player and a fantastic 19 year old slide trumbone player, that were just phenomenal.
Then the band "took it down", way down. And Lenny took the mic and asked some of the girls at the front edge of the audience to let love rule and then he looked at the crowd and said: "Are you gonna invite me out there?" The crowd screamed it's approval.
So Lenny took off his guitar and put the microphone away and, with a follow spot on him WALKED THROUGH THE WHOLE ARENA BY HIMSELF SHAKING PEOPLES HANDS!!!! Meanwhile the band just played a funk beat real low. I've never seen an entertainer do that before in a concert situation! It was fantastic. Lenny Kravitz definitely won over that entire coliseum! Great showmanship and a genuine love of music.
And then I saw something else I've never seen before....an opening act allowed to play an encore!!! That was very cool on Aerosmith's part.
They came back out and ripped through "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and tore the house down!!! Overall Lenny played a little over an hour and it was ALL radio hits that had the entire crowd singing and dancing to every song.
Great band and I would be remiss if I left out that the band. Their two backup singers sang some of the best harmonies you will EVER hear. And the mix for Lenny Kravitz was just crystal clear. You could hear every note the guitar players played. That drummer bitches kick drum was like a cannon, and the vocals were just unbelievable.
The lights came back on and another cool thing happened. Since Lenny is doing the whole tour with Aerosmith...the roadies didn't have to tear down the stage. The entire stage ROTATED and BAM, there was Aerosmith's gear all set up and ready to go! Great idea!
Finally the big moment came. Aerosmith hit the stage and opened the show with The Beatles' "HELTER SKELTER". And then it was hit after hit after hit.
Steve Tyler did a great job and sang his ass off. Unfortunately for him...he still looks great for his age BUT he needs to start asking his hero Mick Jagger for some workout tips because he is fast growing himself a big "Tony Gardo Gut" that was kinda overly obvious when he took his shirt off onstage.
Joe Perry, on the other hand, took his shirt off to play and was just as ripped up and lean as he was when he and I snorted coke all night long in Stuart, Fla. when he was touring with "The Joe Perry Project".
Speaking of Joe Perry, he and Brad Whitford are another pair of guitarists who have absolutely MASTERED the two guitar attack from hell. Never playing the same thing together at the same time. And just like Joe Perry's hero, Keith Richards...Joe spent probably a fourth of the time not playing at all.
Which isn't a bad thing because Brad Whitford is technically a MUCH better player and had the far superior guitar tone to Joe. But damn Joe just LOOKS like a rock guitar player. Matter of fact, in 1979 I went to a "midnight movie" and saw the concert film "Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones" which was from their 1972 tour. Steve Tyler and Joe Perry have perfectly copied the EXACT way, that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards looked and performed in 1972 and have put in some kind of time capsule and kept it up for 30 years!!!
And it has served them well. Steve and Joe now epitomize that Rock-n-Roll look down to a "T". Mick and Keith may have invented it, but Steve and Joe have perfected it.
One of the highlights of the show was when Steve Tyler said: "This is my favorite Aerosmith song of ALL times" And the band kicked in to "No More, No More" DAMN! That song and the entire "Toys In The Attic" album is also MY favorite Aerosmith of all times!!!!
Oddly enough they did NOT play ANY songs from "Pump" Not one.
And to me PUMP is their best album of the "modern era" Aerosmith. They did play all the big "modern" hits for the young girls. And they also did all the "real" Aerosmith songs as well.
They did NOT do the much talked about "recorded backup vocals" that I've heard so many people say they did on past tours. There was no vocal "sweetening" going on either. Steve Tyler flat out sang his ass off. They had a sideman keyboard player, who was the only other musician onstage with them, who sang most of the backups. And it was all just lead vocal and ONE harmony voice.
That's probably why they did NOT do "Love In An Elevator"
Finally they ended the show and Claudia asked me: "Do you think they'll do an encore?" I told her "yes" and I told her that I predicted they would do "Toys In The Attic" and "Elevator"
They came back out and BAM!!! It was "Toys In The Attic"!!! The place went nuts!!! I've ALWAYS loved that song. It's probably the heaviest of all the Aerosmith songs. And when I was in the band SWEET MERCY we used that song to start the show every night.
I'm getting excited just writing about it! That's how fucking heavy and GOOD that song is. Then their second encore song and last song of the evening was NOT "Elevator" No it was WAAAAAYYYYYY better than that! They ended up with... "DRAW THE LINE"
Fuck!!! The memories were flying through my head!!! I could remember being in junior high school and getting together with my drummer and guitar player. Excitedly tearing the plasic cover off that LP, putting it on and hearing "Draw The Line" for the first time! They kicked it in the ASS!
Minuses Of The Show? None really, though Joey Kramer surprisingly had meter problems and tended to very noticeably speed up a lot of songs. Especially compared to the chick drummer in Lenny Kravitz's band. And of course other than Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, and Tom Hamilton....Joey and Brad looked like they were 100 years old. But overall I give this show an A+ with 5 points of extra credit for a phenomenal opening show by Lenny Kravitz.
Robbie
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