Aging rockers still have the goods - Aerosmith offers a hot live show

Aerosmith and opening act The Cult performed Thursday at Saddledome to a sold-out crowd. Attendance: about 15,500.

Talk about a creature that thrives live.

Yes, for the past decade or so Aerosmith have been hit or miss on record. On paper they're a lean, mean, Grammy-gobbling, platinum sales machine. But most of the diehards agree, they haven't held a candle to old Aerosmith for years. That Aerosmith was splendidly dirty -- fingernails black with blues grit and hard rock boogie. That Aerosmith was put on the shelf a long time ago to make room for the MTV-friendly, power balladeers that dominated the '90s.

Or so you thought.

Actually, that salty old dog still lives. Aerosmith certainly dragged him out Thursday night at the Saddledome, his tongue wagging all over classic gems like Dream On, Draw The Line and Mama Kin.

But even the band's often-too-polished latter-day work was spiced up live with a tight, sleazy delivery that recalled Toys In The Attic, the band's '70s masterpiece. Beyond Beautiful, for example, off the band's latest album, Just Push Play, was full of fire and spunk, frontman Steven Tyler parading onto the stage in his flowing gypsy garb, bluesy shriek in top form.

Throughout the evening Tyler kicked, twirled, slithered and grinded his way up and down the stage, howling through rockers like Eat The Rich and pouting his Mick Jagger-like lips on the catchy recent hit, Jaded. The astonishing thing was that he pulled it off so smoothly, with a genuine conviction and energy that was uncanny for a man of his age (he's 53). Jagger hasn't sold it this hot in years.

Meanwhile, Tyler's own Keith Richards, Joe Perry that is, was the macho foil to Tyler's rock harlot, strutting around in black leather and throwing a searing riff into everything he played, from Love In An Elevator to the recent TV shill for Dodge Ram, Just Push Play.

Further highlights came when the band resurrected the more obscure Uncle Salty, one of their greatest songs, and on Back In The Saddle, where Tyler's screech sounded like it might tear his throat out.

Of course, the soupy power ballads had to come. Some of them were redeemed in the live environment, but the tearjerking cliche I Don't Want To Miss A Thing remains Aerosmith's worst sin, despite all the lighters it set off. But thankfully, at press time at least, the sellout schlock took a back seat to the band's blustering, funky heart, as epitomized on Walk This Way, which, by the way, was a knockout.

As for the evening's opening act, The Cult, well, the English hard rockers have never been the best band live -- not even in their '80s heyday. Singer Ian Astbury, looking every bit the rock thug in his black leather and bandanna, was at his most energetic when pounding his tambourine. And, he still gets that familiar chip on his shoulder when the crowd doesn't rock out quite to his liking. "I know, you just wanna' rest your asses for Aerosmith," he said with an indignant sneer. "C'mon!"

Still, the band were an adequate, if not particularly inspiring warmup for the godfathers of gutter rock, pushing the crowd's buttons with faithful renditions of cool old classics like Fire Woman, She Sells Sanctuary, and Love Removal Machine, played tighter then they ever were in The Cult's often sloppy prime.

Fist-pumping favourites of the mullet-set. What better ingredients to rev up your engine for what turned out to be a night of prototypical, bang-your-head, shake-your-booty arena rock?

The only things missing were Jeff Probst and an immunity idol.

In a nice moment of cosmic synchronicity, on the same night that the third installment of the popular reality-series Survivor kicked off, so, too, did the second leg of the latest tour by Aerosmith begin in the rowdy, raucous environment of the Saddledome.

A near sellout crowd turned out to watch rock 'n' roll's true survivors do what they do best, which isn't necessarily outwit or outplay the few classic rock icons that remain from their era.

No, what the Boston-based band does, and does so very, very well it should be noted, is bring the debased, bar room blues boogie for a raunchy night of pie-eyed and mindless good times.

The opening video, featuring the metallic fembot from the cover of the band's latest album, Just Push Play, engaged in -- pun intended -- autoeroticism, perfectly set the tone for the Aerosmith show that followed.

Musically, that sweaty and sleazy theme was kept alive by songs such as Love In An Elevator and Pink, which were performed with the arena-rock slickness you'd expect from 30-year veterans.

But, and here's where the survivor thing is most apparent, it was performed with the kind of energy you rarely see from rockers even half of Aerosmith's members' ages.

The 53-year-old Steven Tyler walked the catwalk and worked his scarfed mic stand and the crowd as though he's still enjoying himself and still enjoying singing the many classics from the band's canon.

Surly, 51-year-old guitarist Joe Perry was the picture of laid-back and cool, knowing he has nothing left to prove, but proving anyway just because he can.

And the rest of the band was equal to the task -- tight and tenacious.

That, plus the endless stream of faves, new and old, is what has allowed them to survive. To survive battles with booze and drugs, to survive a mid-'80s separation, to survive a number of truly terrible albums, and to even survive a recent ultra-embarrassing Super Bowl appearance with Britney Spears and *NSYNC.

Outlast, outperform and, more importantly, outrock, Aerosmith may indeed wind up the only '70s rock survivors left on the island.

If they're not careful, opening act The Cult -- rock survivors in their own right -- may find themselves getting voted off the tour before too long.

The '80s rock band's criminally brief 45-minute set of Led-heavy, mystic metal was in a word: Awesome.

They blew the roof off the old joint with a set peppered with some of that decades most memorable rock moments and, in doing so, threatened to blow the headliners out of the water.

Frontman Ian Astbury still has a voice that -- while faltering at times -- sounds like black leather and lipstick.

Guitarist Billy Duffy still serves up the tasty, meaty solos like they're going out of style. (And for over a decade, unfortunately, they were).

And the gothic, guitar chime opening of She Sells Sanctuary and the sheer brute force of the musical behemoth Love Removal Machine still gets the hairs standing in all the right places.

Even tracks from the Cult's 2001 comeback album, Beyond Good and Evil, slotted themselves into the set nicely and gave the audience something more to remember them by and (knock wood) anticipate a return headlining engagement.

I was lucky enough to see the Cult, Oct 11th in Calgary, I had been waiting to see them again since 1991, their last stop in Calgary for the Ceremony tour. And it was well worth the wait. It was awesome. and I think the rest of the arena thought so as well. I had tickets to see them in Vancouver at the Plaza of Nation, until unfortunately it was cancelled. And I can't wait to see them headline somewhere on their own hopefully soon. As I can never get enough of The Cult. The write up you had posted was from the Herald, and unfortunately it was not as good as a review as the Sun gave, Basically the Sun indicated that if Aerosmith isn't careful, The fans may want The Cult to be headliners. As they put on an incredible show. Anyways just thought I would write with a quick review.