The Quiet Place

When word broke out that Aerosmith were hitting Dubai as part of their summer tour, there was quite a turbulent reaction on the Dubai music scene. I personally had a huge set of mixed emotions and thoughts regarding what Aerosmith will be doing when they reach Dubai. We are seeing legends that were part of the uprising force that shaped a lot of today’s music genres. Are they going to play all their good songs? Are they going to like the crowd? How are they going to survive the reeking humidity of Dubai’s summer? The list kept growing.

Then finally, Aerosmith hits the stage and unfortunately did not satisfy the hype that was being built around this show for the past month.

I’d like to believe that old age played a factor in the sub-par performance and humidity I was forced to sit throughout for 2 hours. Yet thanks to Brad Whitford’s attitude and magnificent performance, he’s pretty much shown what a 55 year old man with an axe can do.

I still see no valid reason for Joe Perry switching at least 6 guitar pieces for what seemed like a complete repetition of pentatonic solos and repeated notes. Not to mention the horrible attempt at going unplugged with the acoustic guitar and Mr. Tyler exposing his “Lick Me” belly scribble while hypocritically telling some girl upfront that he won’t take her backstage because “this” is everything. In terms of performance, the band was super tight except for a few minor glitches, but that’s something that you should normally expect from a band with 25+ years of touring experience. The drummer was a complete disaster though. 15 songs with one drum beat and NOT EVEN ONE drum roll. At least humor us and hit a cowbell or something. Nothing

Regarding sound, Mirage Promotions couldn’t have done a worse job in making Aerosmith sound like they were jamming in a garage studio. Thank you for the great entrance organization, yet you failed miserably on sound. Evidently, this also pointed out how over-glorified some of Aerosmith’s recordings are. A prime example was “I don’t want to miss a thing”. The difference is ridiculously remarkable and makes me wonder if they would have sounded better if they had a good man behind the mixing deck.

Unfortunately, they hype that preceded this show has created the illusion of a perfect performance. Some expectations were probably met, but mine was put to sleep. At least I can now say I’ve seen Aerosmith live. Hopefully, no one will ask for details

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