Aerosmith/ZZ Top Tour
The Aerosmith/ZZ Top Tour, sometimes referred to as the A to Z Tour or Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Tour, was a concert tour headlined by American hard rock bands Aerosmith and ZZ Top. The tour, presented by Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, took place in the summer of 2009 until it had to be cancelled unexpectedly due to shoulder injuries sustained by Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.
| Tour by Aerosmith and ZZ Top | |||||||||||||
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| Start date | June 10, 2009 | ||||||||||||
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| End date | August 5, 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Legs | 1 | ||||||||||||
| No. of shows | 42 (scheduled) + 3 (scheduled, post-tour); 15 (played) + 4 (played, post-tour) | ||||||||||||
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For the first seven dates of the tour, Aerosmith played the entire Toys in the Attic album at every show, with the exception of the last track, "You See Me Crying". On June 26, 2009, while in Wantagh, New York's Jones Beach Theater, Aerosmith played "You See Me Crying", for the first time in the band's history; it was also the first time on the tour that every song on Toys in the Attic was played. Additionally, this tour marked the first time that the band performed "Round and Round" live.
Other notable highlights of the show included guitarist Joe Perry singing lead vocals on "Combination", a deep-cut from the Rocks album, and playing against the animated version of himself in the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith video game. The tour also featured a select one or two fans at each show playing a song from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith live on-stage before the concert.
ZZ Top was the co-headlining act for the tour, with 3 Doors Down opening the first two shows in Maryland Heights, Missouri and East Troy, Wisconsin, and Dropkick Murphys opening the Mansfield, Massachusetts show, as ZZ Top could not perform for the first three shows due to prior commitments. Several dates were canceled mid-tour after Steven Tyler injured his leg in Uncasville, Connecticut. Additionally, guitarist Brad Whitford and bassist Tom Hamilton had to sit out several of the dates due to injuries or surgeries; Whitford and Hamilton had substitutes perform in their places. Aerosmith cancelled the rest of the tour after Tyler fell off the stage in Sturgis, South Dakota, but the band played three more shows in October and November after Tyler recovered.
Personnel
Aerosmith
- Steven Tyler – lead vocals, harmonica, piano
- Joe Perry – guitar, backing vocals, talkbox (on "Sweet Emotion"), pedal steel guitar (on "Rag Doll"), lead vocals (on "Combination")
- Brad Whitford – guitar
- Tom Hamilton – bass
- Joey Kramer – drums, percussion
Additional personnel:
- Russ Irwin – keyboards, backing vocals
- Bobby Schneck – guitar (substituted for Brad Whitford, June 10 – June 28)
- David Hull – bass (substituted for Tom Hamilton, July 15 – August 5)
ZZ Top
- Billy Gibbons – vocals, guitar
- Dusty Hill – bass, keyboards, vocals
- Frank Beard – drums, percussion
Tour dates
Setbacks
The tour was originally supposed to coincide with the release of Aerosmith's new album, which the band had hoped to complete before the tour. However, a variety of setbacks including surgery to repair guitarist Joe Perry's knee and lead singer Steven Tyler suffering pneumonia prevented the album from being completed before the tour. Guitarist Brad Whitford, while recovering from surgery, missed the first seven dates of the tour, but returned in mid-July. At the band's June 28 concert at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, Tyler injured his leg, which required seven shows originally scheduled for early July to be postponed to a later date. When Aerosmith resumed their tour on July 15 in Atlanta, Brad Whitford re-joined the fold after recovering from surgery, however bassist Tom Hamilton had to temporarily depart the tour in order to recover from non-invasive surgery. David Hull filled in for Hamilton until he recovered.
At the band's August 5 concert in Sturgis, South Dakota, Tyler fell off the catwalk midway through the concert while dancing to entertain fans during a break in the show due to sound system failure. He suffered head, neck, and shoulder injuries and had to be flown to a hospital in Rapid City. The rest of the Sturgis show was canceled and, after Tyler consulted his doctors, the band decided they had to cancel the rest of the tour altogether to allow him a full recovery.[2]
In October, when Tyler recovered, two shows were played in Hawaii, one in Maui and one in Honolulu. The show in Maui was played as part of a legal settlement after the band was sued for cancelling a performance there in 2007. The band also played at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the United Arab Emirates in November.
Relations between Tyler and Perry soured in wake of Tyler falling off the stage in Sturgis and reached a fever pitch in late November when a heavily publicized feud erupted in which Tyler was supposedly going to leave the band and be replaced by another singer. Tensions cooled after Tyler returned from rehab, where he was seeking treatment for an addiction to painkillers, and the band announced a world tour to take place in 2010, entitled the Cocked, Locked, Ready to Rock Tour.
Set
ZZ Top Set list
- 1. "Got Me Under Pressure"
- 2. "Waitin' for the Bus"
- 3. "Jesus Just Left Chicago"
- 4. "Pincushion"
- 5. "Cheap Sunglasses"
- 6. "I Need You Tonight"
- 7. "Heard It on the X"
- 8. "Just Got Paid"
- 9. "Gimme All Your Lovin'"
- 10. "Sharp Dressed Man"
- 11. "Legs"
- 12. "La Grange"
- 13. "Tush"
Aerosmith performed songs
Below is a list of songs played on the tour:[3]
A typical setlist would look like this.
- 1. "Train Kept A Rollin'"
- 2. "Cryin'"
- 3. "Love In An Elevator"
- 4. "Jaded"
- 5. "Dream On"
- 6. "Combination"
- 7. "Toys In The Attic"
- 8. "Uncle Salty"
- 9. "Adam's Apple"
- 10. "Walk This Way"
- 11. "Big Ten Inch Record"
- 12. "Sweet Emotion"
- 13. "No More No More"
- 14. "Round And Round"
- 15. "Livin' On The Edge"
Encore:
- 1. "Dirty Water"
- 2. "Come Together"
References
- http://www.aeroforceone.com/index.cfm?pk=viewall&cd=MAE&pid=10784
- http://www.aeroforceone.com/index.cfm/pk/view/cd/NAA/cdid/1208556/pid/302766
- http://vindaloo.web44.net/tour.php?s%3D200902010%26e%3D201000000%26t%3D3%26tour%3D30. Retrieved June 14, 2009. Missing or empty
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