At the Hollywood Bowl, Aerosmith argues for a future

Turns out retirement didn’t quite take for Steven Tyler and the rest of Aerosmith.

Three years after calling it quits due to a vocal injury Tyler sustained just a few dates into a farewell tour, the veteran hard rock band slithered back onstage Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl for Night 1 of a two-part extravaganza called California Dream On.

The evening paired affectionate (if under-rehearsed) tribute performances by an array of admirers — among them Guns N’ Roses, the Black Crowes, Billy Idol, Sammy Hagar, Eric Church and Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson — with a wily (if abbreviated) headlining set by Aerosmith, which had Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl on drums.

Is California Dream On, which will conclude Sunday night at the Bowl, meant to herald Aerosmith’s return to the road? Or does the event serve as a capstone to the band’s half-century-long career, as the night’s host, Bill Burr, seemed to suggest when he welcomed the audience to “the final two shows in Aerosmith’s history”?

Later, Tyler himself gave a little speech about “what a ride it’s been with my brothers,” referring to the band’s Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer. (Kramer sat out most of Thursday’s gig following a series of health-related issues of his own, though the drummer took over from Grohl for a show-closing rendition of “Walk This Way.”)

“Fifty-five f—ing years, and we’re the same f—ing band that started 55 and a half years ago,” Tyler added.

Aerosmith hasn’t made clear what the future holds — in part, perhaps, because of an active legal case against Tyler, who’s been accused of sexual assault by a woman who says he abused her when she was a teenager in the 1970s. (Tyler denies the allegations.) But whatever its intentions, the band was in surprisingly strong shape here: crisp yet bludgeoning in “Toys in the Attic” and “Back in the Saddle,” darkly sensual in “Dream On” and “Sweet Emotion,” funky as hell in “Walk This Way,” for which Kramer gamely tapped a cowbell before Perry cranked his iconic riff.

Johnny Depp joined the band for “Train Kept a Rollin’,” and Alicia Silverstone and Tyler’s daughter Liv put in a joint cameo calling back to their roles in Aerosmith’s “Crazy” video. That’s one song I’d have loved to hear Thursday (along with “Cryin’,” “Angel” and “Jaded,” all of which went unperformed in a show that sadly downplayed Aerosmith’s florid pop-metal streak).

Credit where it’s due, though: Tyler nailed the shrieking high notes in “Dream On” like a guy with something to prove — which of course is exactly what he is.

The rest of California Dream On was pretty uneven. Hagar seemed to have a blast belting “Draw the Line” and the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter,” and the Wilson sisters brought an appropriately spooky edge to “Janie’s Got a Gun.” But Idol was outmatched by the stomping psychedelia of “Livin’ on the Edge,” while Church surely regrets agreeing to take a crack at “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” — a gloriously corny power ballad that requires total commitment to put across.

Speaking of iffy programming choices, I can’t say I’ll ever understand the decision to have GNR and the Black Crowes, each of whom got a mini-set, cover tunes from Aerosmith’s catalog instead of playing their own hits that handily demonstrate Aerosmith’s formative influence.

Then again, GNR did throw in obligatory versions of “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Paradise City,” both of which lacked anything close to the sex or danger the band once oozed. Indeed, GNR’s ho-hum performance begged a question for Aerosmith, whether or not the band plans to keep going: When being feted by those you helped inspire, is it better to be challenged or to be flattered?

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