It’s been more than 40 years since Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, and Brad Whitford came together to form the legendary rock band Aerosmith. Over that time, they have dealt with their share of obstacles such as alcohol and drug abuse. But their struggle and eventual overcoming of their hardships is what has made them such a strong and focused band.
To prove that they are still one of the biggest and baddest bands out there the Boston natives their latest release features their recent tour of Japan and their first return to the island in seven years.
It’s November 2011 and the recent tsunami and following nuclear meltdown has placed the Japanese people at the forefront of the group’s collective mind and harkened their return in order to try and bring the people some well-deserved and needed musical entertainment.
The Blu-ray is presented in 1080i High Definition Widescreen 16×9 (1.78:1) with DTS HD Master Audio, LPCM Stereo. The picture quality is excellent and rivals anything out there in feature films. It is so clean and crisp that it makes the audience feel like they are on the stage with the band. The cut scenes between songs are more akin of an average television program, which most likely comes from them using what appears to be home-grade video. Also the black and white segments of both concert and documentary-style footage appears somewhat grainy. But this is more of a director’s choice than any real quality issues. The audio is just as fine as the video with thick and rich tones capturing all the variables of the music, both high and low, and draws the viewer into the crowd with its surround sound features.
The only Special Features on the disc are the two bonus tracks that are no different than the rest of the disc and should have been included from the start instead of having to go through the menu options in order to play them. In fact, the short segments between each song might have been better used as a special feature since they felt a little awkward and were followed by an abrupt cut right into the concert footage and kept taking the audience out of the overall experience.
While you can see that the band has aged over the years and they probably aren’t as spry as they once were, you can’t tell it by listening to the music. Their performances are flawless and as good as they’ve ever been and it’s on display when each member gets a shot at a solo performance during the show.
Track List:
Draw the Line
Love In An Elevator
Livin’ On The Edge
Hangman Jury
No More No More
Mama Kin
Monkey On My Back
Toys In The Attic
Listen To The Thunder
Sweet Emotion
Boogie Man
Rats In The Cellar
Movin’ Out
Last Child
S.O.S. (Too Bad)
Walk This Way
Train Kept A Rollin’
Bonus Tracks:
Lick And A Promise
One Way Street
The most obvious omission is “Dream On”, one of the band’s most famous songs. Upon realization that the song is missing and reexamining the set list you’ll find that that there are no ballads whatsoever. “Crying,” “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing,” and “Janie’s Got a Gun” are also songs that the audience might expect to hear but are strangely absent. Maybe it’s because the band wanted to stay more uplifting and keep up a party-like atmosphere for the recently disaster-ridden country, or maybe it’s simply a director’s choice not to include any of them in the footage.
Unfortunately, there isn’t an explanation, but it really doesn’t matter since every song is a classic and it’s a Blu-ray that any Aerosmith fan would be happy to own.
