Early in the day, before most people came.

PEI's a little place. Aerosmith is a big band. Ten years ago, before the bridge came in, a concert like this on PEI would have been just unimaginable. Well, imagine no more, 'cause big-time acts are starting to come in much more often now. Some I have to pass on, but attending this one was a no-brainer. Here's the summary of the day, from my point of view, with pictures I didn't take.

Now, about 30-35000 people were at this show. The show was to start at 12:30, with doors opening at 12:00. The gate was only 2-4 lines wide. Congestion much? What was the line... half a kilometer? We were backed up to Joe Ghiz park, anyway. In the rain.

To the workers/volunteers' credit, we got in pretty quick, and the concert was late starting, so nothing was missed. C and I got in, walked into the more central licensed area, and plunked down. Of course, though, we had to portage over a few tracts of mud, where people would later mudwrestle, slide, and throw mud. This pic is only a puddle by the track (the horse track, where the show was held).

Now, before the show got under way, an informal survey was done with the damp, scant crowd. Paul Allen asked how many people from PEI, NB, NS, etc., were there. PEIslanders were rare, and pretty much everyone was from NB and NS. I was surprised, but I guess it was true when they said 25,000+ of the tickets came from off-Island.

Now, to make things easier, and since I don't have a Mac, I've made an exciting four-colour graph depicting the awesomeness of the day's acts. I factored in the performance with the crowd response, so keep that in mind.


Allow me to elaborate. Local group is OK. I will not go any farther than that, since I went to high school with two of them, and don't want to swell or deflate their heads. Serena Ryder was awesome. She started with this acapella number that had a lot of edge. I'd like to see her come back and do a whole show. Wil was pretty "meh". His last song was quite good, though. Some slide-guitar bluesy stomp bit. Good stuff. He gave CDs to people in the audience. Ciara was next. She was the one who was "not like the others". To her credit, though, the show wasn't bad. It wasn't great, either, but the crowd was much more receptive and respectful than I thought they'd be. Apparently, the Island also cured her ailment. 54-40 was most excellent as well. They were a great add-on. They rocked, and they played Ocean Pearl, so I was happy. Unfortunately, people didn't seem to know how to work a sing-a-long or answer the band or anything. Stupid mainlanders. Christa Borden isn't even really worth mentioning. She did mostly covers. She was a former Miss teen Newfoundland. She was Bo-ring.

Next up was Cheap Trick. I'm no huge fan, but I have Budokan on vinyl and know several of their tunes. I like 'em. They had a couple of lulls, but they got the crowd going pretty well. Again, I was pissed at the unintelligence of the crowd here, as they didn't know the crowd part in "I Want You To Want Me". Ah well. I enjoyed 'em. I also really enjoyed Nielsen's guitars, particularly his 5-neck one, and the one of... himself.


After a pretty long wait, and the usual teasing by roadies doing checks, the lights went down, and the slick pre-show video came on. Everyone started going bonkers. Then, it was "Love In An Elevator" and everyone went gazonkers! It was raining again, now, but nobody cared. I mean, holy geez. THE Aerosmith was on stage, in front of us, in Charlottetown, at the harness racing park! Here's what they played:


01. Love In An Elevator
02. Same Old Song and Dance
03. Cryin'
04. Eat The Rich
05. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
06. Jaded
07. What It Takes
08. Last Child
09. Baby Please Don't Go
10. Hangman Jury/Seasons Of Wither
11. Dream On
12. S.O.S. (Too Bad)
13. Livin' On The Edge
14. Stop Messin' Around
15. Sweet Emotion
16. Draw The Line

Encore:

17. Walk This Way

The lighting was good, as were the onstage cameras and video screen, so they looked great. They sounded unbelievable! Everyone's sound was in pretty much perfect balance, and every note was hit just right. Tyler's voice truly lived up to the "Demon of Screamin'" nickname. He was pretty impressive. He even teased us (of course), by doing things like getting right up in a camera's lens during "What It Takes", and teasing out the chorus, like,

"...without thinkin' you've lost everything that was good in your life to a toss...
of...

the...

(wait for it... as he playfully looks around)

...

DIIIIIIIIICE!"

A similar wail, but not the above one.

They cranked out the hits, balls-to-the-wall style, rockin' all the way, with a couple of bluesy numbers thrown in, too. Joe Perry is an OK singer, but it was nice to hear him take the lead. He's even a less OK public speaker, but he wanted to tell us about his carbon-fibre guitar that was co-designed by MIT and NASA. Apparently it doesn't go out of tune or something.

Where he lacked in voice, he more or less destroyed on guitar. Great solos, lots of feeling, I mean... he tore off his shirt and whipped his guitar with it as the guitar lay on the stage. He also used a theramin in the middle of a solo, which I thought was very cool. Not cheesey at all. Just cool. I didn't see pics of either yet, mostly 'cause I don't have high-speed internet, and the site I found many pics on is SLOW and these pics even slower. Check out krock1055.com. There should still be lots of pic goodness there. I think. And here.

So, without rambling on and on, it was an awesome show. For a big show, in my life, I think it's second only to the SARS show in Downsview park, in particular, AC/DC's set.

Not everything about it was perfect, though. Some people didn't share my easy-going, wowed experience.

suedavidcarver.com is a site that popped up in response to the VIP experience at the show. Apparently, folks thought that if they payed close to triple, they would get to sit on Tyler's lap and lick sweat off him before their beer shots, just before their humungous buffet feast in the middle of the show. OK. Perhaps that's some hyperbole there. But, the VIP section was closer than the vast majority of the other concert goers. About the beer and food, I dunno. Different people had different experiences. But for some people to say stuff like, "We are seriously considering launching a class action lawsuit against the municipal and provincial governments and the owners of the CDPEC, the federal agency ACOA" is just ridonculous. Chill out, doofuses. get over yourselves. It was a concert, and a damned good one. I think (a perhaps misinformed) Steve Tyler said it best when he said, "Someone told me there's like 30,000 people that live here, and there's 35,000 people here tonight. What the fuck is going on?!"

That being said, I would like to give everyone a reminder of three concert commandments. You should follow them.

1. Put. The bitch. Down. She doesn't need to be on your shoulders, and she blocks everyone's view.
2. The concert started when it started, not when the last band is about to come on/is playing. Get there on time, and stay where you want to be. Make sure you find a spot where you can see.
3. Be polite. Don't push people, and don't expect them to let you through when you mistake them for a turnstile at Canadian Tire. Expect to feel resistance. Or force. I hope force.

I'm sure there were some more commandments I was thinking of, but I've been picking away at this post for days and just want to get it up. So, the Coles notes version: overall the concert rocked, Aerosmith was fantastic, some people are morons, and some sook and wine too much.