1988.09.02 - Starwood Amphitheatre, Antioch, USA

Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses rock out for 17,000 fans

REVIEW
Thomas Goldsmith

Look out. Lookout Mountain — last night Nashville had a little Rock City all its own.

About 17,000 people, or a sizable small town, moved into Starwood Amphitheatre for a concert of the legendary raunch of Aerosmith and the history-in-the-making rock of Guns N' Roses.

The temporary community had its problems — there was rush-hour traffic getting in and out — but its residents left Starwood well pleased with the two hard-hitting bands.

Aerosmith has far the longer history. They formed in 1970 and have chalked up hits from 1975’s Sweet Emotion to the recent Dude (Looks Like a Lady). With frontmen Steven Tyler and Joe Perry leading the way, the group touched on all eras of their stardom in a generous, flamboyant show.

Tyler, whose resemblance to Mick Jagger has dogged him for close to 20 years, pranced around stage in a jumpsuit that looked like something Elvis Presley might have picked up at Frederick’s of Hollywood. The Jagger comparison, while overworked, is a fair one; Tyler even has Perry on hand as his Keith Richard.

In fact, when Perry sat down with an acoustic guitar and Tyler joined him with a harmonica for some uncredited blues borrowings, a picture of Mick and Keith, who have been known to do similar things, might as well have been projected on the backdrop behind Aerosmith.

The group fared much better when getting deeper into its own style than when cranking out things like a cover version of the Yardbird’s cover version of the Rock ’n’ Roll Trio’s Train Kept A-Rollin’. Rag Doll, from the recent Permanent Vacation LP, successfully combined rapid-fire lyrics and Perry’s lap steel with an r&b-ish groove.

The song Permanent Vacation, with its guitar duel between Perry and the equally accomplished Brad Whitford, got hundreds of fans on their feet and to the stage as if by prearranged signal.

Aerosmith did fine with the crowd, who got a tight, well-produced show that occasionally betrayed a weariness and/or boredom born of months of touring. That may have been emphasized by the go-for-the-throat opening set from Guns N’ Roses.

Country-rocker Steve Earle once recommended Guns N’ Roses as "the real deal.” Now I know what he meant.

The L.A.-based quintet, led by vocalist W. Axl Rose, has scored a huge hit record with its first LP, Appetite for Destruction. On that record, as in their Starwood show, the group combined metal, punk, hard-rock, blues and even ballads in a sharply inventive style that is the essence of rock ’n’ roll attitude.

Rose, along with killer lead guitarist Slash and a pumpin’ rhythm section, put on a show that was a bigger-than-life version of a bar band’s 3 a.m. set. They played ultra-hard rock, their melodic hit Sweet Child O' Mine and even threw in Bob Dylan's Knockin' on Heaven's Door and other unrecorded material.

The big if about Guns N’ Roses is the foul-mouthed litany of sexual violence in their lyrics and graphics. Perhaps born out of metal tradition, that dimension can only alienate a potential larger audience for this great, talented band.