Aerosmith: Not Falling Off

First of all, Steven Tyler looked really, really wasted up on stage at Great Woods last Friday night.

Just kidding.

He looked and sounded fine. Make that great on both counts. And so did the rest of the band on what was the first of a sold-out two-night stand in Mansfield. But though he stopped short of naming names, Tyler playfully responded to allegations made earlier this year by former Aerosmith manager Tim Collins that some members of the veteran band -- Tyler in particular -- may have tumbled off the clean and sober wagon they've been on since the start of their '90s comeback. "So this is the town where those rumors got started," the mischievous lead singer reminded the crowd before leading a game of call-and-response that went something like this:

Tyler: "Aerosmith is high on drugs."

The crowd: "I don't think so!"

Who knows, the truth may be more complicated than that, or it may all be just that simple. Either way, the drama surrounding the drug rumors and band's nasty split with Collins certainly helped make the notoriously volatile Aerosmith front-page news on the eve of the release of Nine Lives (Columbia), the group's 12th studio disc. And if Friday's set was any indication, it also seems to have bolstered the crucial fighting spirit of a band who have always been at their best when making rock in a hard place.

The group certainly came on as if they had something to prove, tearing through an aggressive version of the new disc's title track, with the twin guitars of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford blaring so loud, it was a little hard to hear Tyler's vocals. The mix problems were sorted out quickly, as the band launched one of their more contemporary hits, "Love in an Elevator." The stage setting was relatively stripped down by the standards of today's technologically enhanced rock concerts -- no giant video monitors, no laser-guided missile lighting, just some Oriental tapestry-style curtains, a couple of giant feline statues, three inflated cobras with beady red eyes, and a ramp circling the back of the stage for Tyler to gallop across. The band brought along a keyboard player, who stood stage right and added slick synth strings and horns to make newer tunes like "Love in an Elevator," "Falling in Love Is Hard on the Knees," and "Janie's Got a Gun" sound more like the albums than they probably had to. It was a particular shame to find fake horns drowning out Perry's lap steel slide on the gutsy "Rag Doll," if only because an impromptu blues jam in the middle of "Same Old Song and Dance" proved that Aerosmith remain a band who can stand on their own.

Having dispensed with the '90 hits, and with the requisite plugging of the new disc early on, they zeroed in on the classics for the latter half of the set. "Oh, you like the old stuff," Tyler joked between fierce versions of "Toys in the Attic" and "Rats in the Cellar." The latter was the night's only real set-list surprise -- and it was a pleasant one at that -- unless you count Perry's lead vocal cameo during the encore. He sang a bristling new tune (the B-side of a Nine Lives single) titled "Falling Off," as in falling off the proverbial wagon. They might as well have just called it the "Let's Fuck with Tim Collins's Mind" song.

"Falling Off" ain't gonna be a classic. But at least it showed that Aerosmith aren't afraid to play around with their bad-boy history, to live on the edge vicariously through one of their past nine lives. They'll probably never again be hungry enough to write another "Sweet Emotion" or "Walk This Way." But after three decades in the business, they can still muster the conviction and intensity to deliver those tunes the way they were meant to be played.

-- Matt Ashare