Sept. 28, 1978 review: Aerosmith and AC/DC in the Aud

 

For concerts in the Aud, I usually watched from the middle of the Gold section to the left of the stage, but this time I was in the third row on the floor. Like everyone else around me, I spent the entire Aerosmith set standing on top of my chair.

Sept. 28, 1978 review

Aerosmith’s Rock Has a Heart of Stone(s)

        We’re waiting out a wind-driven rain under the eaves of Memorial Auditorium Wednesday night, our ears blown away from 105 minutes of Aerosmith, when a friend recalls Mick Jagger’s remark after he saw the group. Imitation, Jagger decided, was the sincerest form of flattery.

        After eight years of developing as kind of a heavy-metal Rolling Stones, the Boston-based quintet has risen to within reach of its full degenerate potential.

        One look when the black curtain rises is enough to tell. Guitarist Brad Whitford’s eyes are mere slits. A tray of booze – vodka, brandy – sits on the drum riser. A keyboardman helps fill out the sound. Hovering over the stage is a blindingly extravagant lighting grid.

        It’s all the better for watching singer Steve Tyler. A shrill, angular replica of Jagger in a tight, leopard-spotted suit that ties across the front, he wags his pinkie and a diamond sparkles. The teenage girls love him.

        Guitarist Joe Perry is a stronger, pushier Keith Richards, lurking like a crow in his black suit when he isn’t ripping off a solo. A lock of hair on top of his black, feathered haircut is bleached bright blond.

        Tyler and Perry’s biggest danger is the stuff that comes flying out of this boisterous mob of about 10,000 young fans. Frisbees, pennies and burned-out flashcube clusters zing within inches of their heads.

        They go six numbers into the set before they come completely into focus on what Tyler introduces as “a song from a new movie.” They then recreate the best moment on that “Sgt. Pepper” soundtrack – “Come Together.”

        The band doesn’t venture much into vintage Aerosmith. They don’t even do “Dream On.” Some of the newer things suggest the Rolling Stones so strongly that it wouldn’t be surprising to hear “Draw the Line” segue into “Jumping Jack Flash.”

        Perry is in fantastic form, burning his signature again and again into the thundering wall of rhythm. Tyler, meantime, has one of the great tortured screams of rock and he uses it liberally. “Back in the Saddle Again” takes him from a constrained gasp to a gut-busting bellow.

        Their classic “Walk This Way” from the “Toys in the Attic” album leads off an encore that stretches to four numbers. Perry hurls his guitar at his stack of Marshall amplifiers to bring down the final note.

        The opening group, an unrelenting Australian hard-rock fivesome called AC/DC, gained an encore with a spectacular plunge into the crowd that would not have been possible prior to the invention of the cordless electric guitar.

        Guitarist Angus Young gave his climactic solo while riding around the perimeter of the floor atop the shoulders of singer Bon Scott.

        Scott, a skinny, tattooed beefcake vocalist in tight denim, provided a foil to Young’s maniac, head-bobbing stampedes around the stage in a British private school uniform – short pants, bookbag, tie and jacket.

        Another Cheap Trick? Well, not quite. Songs like “Live Wire,” “Problem Child” and “Sin City” got sleazily repetitive. And Young’s solos, despite the physical effort, lack the crisp, theatrical flair of Rick Nielsen’s, to say nothing of the humor. On the other hand, Nielsen doesn’t threaten to take off his shorts.

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IN THE PHOTO: Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler and Joe Perry on the cover of a bootleg recording of their November 1978 Boston Gardens concert in Boston, Mass.,  

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FOOTNOTE: Booze and drugs were taking their toll on Aerosmith on this tour, along with internal bickering. Within a year, Joe Perry departed and Brad Whitford left in 1981, but not forever. They came back together again in the mid-1980s, spent time in drug rehab and rehabbed their fortunes, as well, beginning with the collaboration with rapper Run-D.M.C. on their hit "Walk This Way." And they kept on going until last September. That's when Steve Tyler blew out his vocal cords three dates into their farewell tour. No word yet on when the canceled shows, including one in Buffalo's KeyBank Center, will be rescheduled.

As for AC/DC, they were about nine months away from releasing their breakthrough album, "Highway to Hell," and 15 months away from the death of singer Bon Scott from acute alcohol poisoning after a night of drinking in London. They considered quitting, but Scott's parents said he would have wanted them to carry on. So they have, albeit with the loss of more members, notably Angus Young's brother Malcolm, who died in 2017. They're about to launch their first tour in eight years in Europe in mid-May. No American dates at the moment, but they're sure to come. 

Setlist.fm lists only three songs from this Aerosmith date in Buffalo, but here's what they played two nights later at Cobo Arena in Detroit:

Toys in the Attic

S.O.S. (Too Bad)

Mama Kin

I Wanna Know Why

Big Ten Inch Record (Bull Moose Jackson cover)

Sight for Sore Eyes

Lick and a Promise

Come Together (Beatles cover)

Back in the Saddle

Sweet Emotion

Lord of the Thighs

Seasons of Wither

Chip Awa the Stone (Richard Supa cover)

Walk This Way

Draw the Line

Same Old Song and Dance

Rats in the Cellar

Milk Cow Blues (Kokomo Arnold cover)

The Train Kept A-Rollin' (Tiny Bradshaw cover)

 

The AC/DC setlist in Detroit included:

Live Wire

Problem Child

Sin City

Gone Shootin'

Bad Boy Boogie

Whole Lotta Rosie

Rocker

Let There Be Rock

Dog Eat Dog