We were almost on time!
Sammy Hagar kicked off his set as we were about halfway in from the far parking area (Field 4).
We missed the first 2 songs and heard the 3rd as we made our way to our seats.
It was easy to see immediately why Van Halen had him as a front man and why he has survived a long time in the rock world. Dude can front a band.
He seemed really intent on entertaining and not concerned about the fact that he was opening or the crowd was sparse. He performed for the people who were into it and not against the hoards of 40 somethings sitting and ignoring him.
He has a bar setup on stage and there were 2 bartenders mixing drinks for him and for fans in the front rows who were “into it”.
Aerosmith took FOREVER to take the stage. The delay was literally an hour and 20 minutes or more. It didn’t help that we were surrounded by stereotypical middle aged house wives gossiping and griping LOUDLY not only between sets, but during much of Sammy Hagar too.
Steven Tyler’s face is a little scary on the video close ups, but he’s live a hard 60-something years.
His voice is still Fantastic. He hits almost every note on every song.
For a super band, he seemed to interact with the crowd spontaneously quite a bit. High fiving fans, serenading people and holding the mic out to the crowd (or individuals) to sing a verse.
Despite a slight on and off drizzle, the crowd remained upbeat and relatively into it, despite their age. The row in front of us was a group of particularly drunk (and I’d imagine sore the next day) women who NEVER SAT DOWN.
The whole Joe Perry vs Steven Tyler dynamic was really odd. At times they’d be cheek to cheek singing and dancing around one another. Other times Joe Perry seemed to avoid Tyler. I’d imagine its a real love-hate relationship there. It was highlighted by Tyler hitting Perry in the head while swinging his mic stand around. No real injury, but a short delay as Perry sauntered around stage cursing.
Each member of the band got their own spotlight moment over the course of the night, but the band clearly revolves around the Tyler-Perry dynamic.
I think we got a pretty kick ass setlist too. I haven’t monitored shows since, but the ones before it had a different setlist with fewer songs.
