KISS/Aerosmith…Target Center/Minneapolis Minnesota-Nov 10 2003

 

This is not just another Concert Review…..It is but isn’t! Keep reading….better yet get a Beverage of your choice as this should have been a Two Parter….

But Naaaaaa….

Rocksimus Maximus Tour/World Domination Tour is what this tour between Kiss and Aero was called!  Two Heavy Weights from the 70’s teaming up to rake in even more Dough and once this tour was announced it was a No Brainer to go.

Tbone for whatever reason sat this one out so I took the trip down to Minneapolis with my friends Randy and Andre. This was gonna be a quick trip down a 1 nighter and Boom back to Thunder Bay the next day. Kiss and Aero kept this tour strictly to the United States for whatever reason.

That Chad Kroger like band Salvia was supposed to open the show but for some they no showed and were replaced by another act whose name escapes me but they reminded me of Sum 41 and they were from Philadelphia. (More on them later).. Andre called them “Crappy Kiddie Punk!”

So after these Dudes played and after a quick changeover …

Here’s The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again being pumped over the P.A which means one thing…

KISS….featuring the usual characters…

Starchild/Demon/Peter Criss and Tommy Thayer!

The Setlist…

 

“Detroit Rock City”
“Deuce”
“Shout It Out Loud”
“Do You Love Me?”
“Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll”
“Firehouse”
“I Love It Loud”
“I Want You”
“God of Thunder”
“100,000 Years”
“Black Diamond”
“Beth”
“Love Gun”

ENCORE

Rock And Roll All Night

I know a lot of people rag on Thayer doing the Ace schtick but I tell ya he pulled it off quite well and Peter Criss well I felt bad( Beth was I dunno kinda weird,don’t know what it was) as he was barely hitting his drums and stuff but he still showed up so it was no surprise to me when Gene and Paul didn’t renegotiate his contract. Or whatever the deal was…

KISS though playing  before Aero just blew off a ton of Pyro and I mean a ton of Pyro. I think they were trying to upstage Aero (More thoughts on that later) It was Loud man real Loud. I mean ask Andre or no don’t as he downed a ton of Beer before the show and passed out during KISS’s Set HAHAHAHA…..I just recall looking over a few times and he was slumped in his seat. Tons of Pyro blasting off and Andre slept through it….haha…..Frigg Dude ….well whatever….

I liked KISS this night as it was Pyro Rock N Roll! I Want You was played so I was a Happy Camper! All in all a great KISS show.

The Stage set up for Kiss was huge so it was cool to see that the stage after KISS had exited rotated like a turntable with one half being the Kiss Stage and the other half being the Aero stage!

After less than a half hour change over here’s Aerosmith…

AeroForce 1…..

Back in the Saddle
Love in an Elevator
Toys in the Attic
Let the Music Do the Talking
Pink
Jaded
What It Takes
Stop Messin’ Around
(Fleetwood Mac cover)
Baby, Please Don’t Go
(Joe Williams’ Washboard Blues Singers cover)
Dream On
Rag Doll
Cryin’
Walk This Way
Encore:
Sweet Emotion

Course Steve Tyler/Joe Perry/Brad Whitford/Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer kicked out the jams with a simple basic stage setup and just put the pedal to the floor especially the first four tracks that were played! Special mention must be made that they played….

Let The Music Do The Talking…..!!! Love this song from 1985’s criminally underrated  Done With Mirrors. Course as you can see a bunch of MTV staples were played and that’s ok in my book as they didn’t play that awful Disney Tune…

In case you were wondering Andre regained consciousness right before Aero hit the stage….

Side note from Aeros headline set is that when they played Baby Please Don’t Go Tyler announced from the stage that they were going to filming the song for Dick Clarks Rockin New Years Eve so that was kinda cool and at the end of the song the whole Target Centre was covered in little Aero like snowflakes made in the letter A! ( I looked for the video but nothing was on youtube). Aero has never let me down live as this was my 7th time seeing them so you are always getting your money’s worth! Course I have only seen AeroSober live  not AeroHigh live but I came close as back in 1986 Aero was supposed to play Duluth(along with Ted Nugent) but it was scrapped…Man that would have been a show to see!

Back to 2003 and if I had to pick a winner I would have to say Aero was the better band this  night as they just did what they did(like I had mentioned earlier. Aero slayed me with those four opening numbers). KISS though also did what they did and were great as well …but yeah if I had to choose…

Always wanted a KISS T with the Alive Cover!

Show’s Over Now…..

We were staying about five blocks away from the Target Center so we walked to the show and after the show as were heading back to our Hotel outside one of the other Hotels was a dude standing there holding a bunch of vinyl. Why would some dude on a cold November night be standing outside a hotel holding vinyl. That could mean just one thing….

I spotted this chap when we were crossing the street so I walked over as he was the only person outside …

Deke- “I see you holding vinyl more importantly Aero vinyl.

Vinyl Guy- “I purposely missed this show and have been here an hour waiting as the only signature I need is Joe Perry’s!”

“WHUT!!?”

As Vinyl Guy makes this statement I motioned to Andre and Randy to get over where I was standing . After I tell them the deal  were all hanging with Vinyl Guy who was  cool and we chatted about all things Aero and he told us he’s been collecting there signatures for years. Had all there albums signed except for Joe as he  is always elusive as when you think he’s at the hotel he’s not and such so we waited. I was like Holy Frigg Aerosmith is coming…..

I did ask Vinyl Guy at one point in our conversation a question and it went like this..

Deke- “Gene and Paul staying here at this Hotel?”

Vinyl Guy- “Probably but they would have gotten here hours ago Counted all their cash and then gone to bed!”

Truer words have never been spoken!

Not to long after as were hanging around outside a car pulls out and here come Tom and Brad. Tom kinda keeps moving with the AeroHandler but Mr Whitford stops and signs Vinyl Guy’s albums and our ticket stubs! Brad was cool, not in a rush and we had a bit of a chat with him and he went inside the Hotel and went into a Dining Room as we could see from the outside looking in Tom and Brad mingling along.

A short while Joey Kramer was dropped off and he signed our tickets but he seemed annoyed for whatever reason. Fair enough as we all have those days but he did sign my ticket so I won’t slam him too hard but if the opportunity presented itself to approach him again I would pass…

Than came a long wait….real long…..It was well past midnight and we were still outside but Andre said Frigg this let’s go in. I laughed and said we will get Booted Out for sure. Next thing you know were in the Lobby. Off to the right is the Catering Room which was off-limits.  So we sat in the Lobby and like out of the Beatles Hard Days Night Movie we sat there held up newspapers to hide our identity! I  must point out that we were hiding from Security not mobs of screaming Women! Damn…..

Andre said “Let’s get some food!” I was like “Nope” Andre than proceeded into the Catering Room where Whitford/Kramer and Hamilton were. I cringed and laughed at the same time as I couldn’t believe he was going to be ballsy enough to eat the AeroFood but nope what Andre did was even more crazier as Tom Hamilton (whose signature we did not get ) was talking to someone and Andre walked up behind Tom tapped him on the shoulder and next thing you know Andre came back with Tom’s signature! The only one between the 3 of us to get it!

HAHAHA…well played but this move came at a cost as the Two Huge (but friendly) Hotel Security Guards came over and asked us who we were! One of us said ‘We’re Guests!” The one Guard laughed and said “Nice One. C’mon guys you gotta go!” Back out in the cold air and Vinyl Guy was still there.

We waited and the AeroHandler came out to tell us that Steve was showing up shortly to be polite and not bug him for autographs as he was ‘Bagged Out ” or something to that effect.

What can ya do but oblige. A vehicle pulls up and out pops Steven Tyler about 5 feet from me! Frigg man so close yet so far away! First thing I noticed was how short Tyler is! Ha…someone said ‘Hey Steve Great Show” Tyler responded with a thanks and wave and Bam he was gone…just like that…..

About 15 minutes later here comes the Annoying AeroHandler again telling us that same speech except with Joe’s name being inserted in the same spiel that the dude gave about Steve 15 m minutes earlier. I recall Vinyl Guy muttering a “Fuck That!” so I thought Wowzer’s this may be good as Vinyl Guy is not taking no for an answer!

A few minutes later as I turned around here comes Joe Perry and his Guitar Tech walking down the side-walk carrying Two Guitar cases and Joe walks right up to us! A total WTF moment if there was ever one!

Perry like his description fits is the Real Deal. He’s The King Of Cool and once again I couldn’t get over the fact that I was taller than him. I’m looking down at Joe Fuckin Perry! HAHAHA….

Vinyl Guy was elated  as Joe signed all his vinyl and Vinyl Guy just disappeared after that. Mission Accomplished for V.G! Perry signed all of our ticket stubs and man this was before iPhones so no pics were taken which is a right bummer but hey…Joe was cool he asked the three us what we thought of the show. We stroked his ego with our answers BUT I did tell him thanks for bringing back Let The Music Do The Talking.  Joe said “You Like that Huh?” I said “Yeah I love that album!” Joe said nothing …HAHAHAHA…..

The real cool thing about meeting Joe was he was outside with three lunatics from Tbay all by himself even his Tech went inside the hotel and the Aerohandler was nowhere to be found. After a few more minutes of small chat like where we are  from and Joe telling us they were staying  in Minneapolis for about week as that was their main base for the shows in that area. Joe headed indoors….

We could have kidnapped him! Good thing I didn’t mention that to Andre…..

Cool Fella that Mr Perry is…..

CLASSIC CLOSING MOMENT…

As we were leaving the hotel the  next morning. Randy beat us to the elevator and so when the next one showed up me and Andre stepped on the elevator. I noticed right away a tall lanky young 20-ish musician  like fella with girl hanging off of him.

It clicked….. My conversation went like this..

Deke- “Hey man you’re the singer from the opening band at the Kiss show last night right?”

Singer Guy- “Yeah man…

Just than I realized here’s Andre and the Singer Guy who Andre had called his band about 12 hours earlier at the concert  “Crappy Kiddie Punk!” face to face in the elevator.

At that moment I could have told Singer Guy what my buddy actually thought of his band  but as quick as that funny thought of picturing some white skinny  dude brawling in the elevator with Andre who in all fairness would have dropped Skinny Dude like a bad habit.Andre blurted out to the skinny dude guy about his band…..

“YOU GUYS KICKED ASS LAST NIGHT!” 

Great Trip….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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