I was not really an Areosmith fan but my friend Cole and his friends
were big fans so I figured I should like them as well. I didn't
dislike Areosmith it just wasn’t something I had searched out and
not something I ever got a hankering for but there I was at my first
official concert seated behind the gold-flake hefty rockers. We had
endured the musical stylings of the tragically inept Jackyl and we
were watching the roadies set up and tune up the real bands gear and
I never having been to a concert before was not sure what kind of
time we were looking at. The tune up roadie picked up a guitar and
sound checked it with a little Led Zeppelin and I thought that was
cool and then he played a little AC/DC on the next guitar. Ironically
they were both bands that I guess, if pressed, I would have preferred
going to see. The lights went down and the smoke came up and we were
treated to the dulcet and memorable opening riff to 'Sweet Emotion'
and in that instant, with their much greater musical skill and vastly
professional production crew then the opener, I understood the appeal
of live concerts. Everyone stood up and cheered which meant that I
had to stand up if I still wanted to see. The Goldy ladies started
twitching arrhythmically in what they must consider dance in their
culture and Cole and I got a really big kick out of there awkward
lurching. As the concert went on I was getting into the mood more and
more and the highest praise I can offer the band was that they played
the songs just like on the album without a lot of musically
masturbatory and self indulgent solos and flourishes. The show
wrapped up and Cole I were getting our stuff together because as
concert virgins we were not aware of the fake ending thing but were
clued in because everyone else just kept cheering and chanting and
yelling but definitely not moving or leaving. Sure enough as I later
found was pretty much concert ritual they came back and played three
of their all time greats for everyone to sing along to and leave
fully satisfied. We headed out and Cole bought a tee-shirt then we
found our ride and recounted the evening to a long suffering mother
who got all the pleasure of hearing a concert recap. My ears rand for
a day or two and I had the concert bug especially when I was able to
see how jealous all the non-concert people got when I told them I had
gone unchaperoned to a gig. That was worth more to me then seeing
Areosmith live.
