MIDLIFE ROCKER/Rockin' it with ZZ and Aerosmith

Photo by Flickr/JackO'Diamonds Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

After spending Father’s Day with my 13 and 7 year old in a kind of idyllic Father’s Day fashion, and 33 years after my first Aerosmith and ZZ Top concerts when I was 15, I went to see…yes…the Daddy’s Day double bill of rock legends Aerosmith and ZZ Top at Nissan Pavilion.

Just knowing I was going to see two of the bands that helped cultivate my deep love of live music was a truly ecstatic thought.
 
Sure they are 60 year old, craggy-skinned rockers trying to keep their own careers alive decades after they began their journeys, but who cares?
 
This was gonna be good.
 

Photo by Flickr/ChrisGampat Sure they are 60 year old, craggy-skinned rockers trying to keep their own careers alive decades after they began their journeys, but who cares?

Oh, and being at the concert with the most beautiful woman in the place didn’t hurt the experience either...and yeah, she’s also my best friend and enjoyed it as much as I did.

And the two old rock and roll train engines didn’t dissapoint.
 
This double shot of blues driven, hard drivin’ classic rock was as good a pure rock and roll show as you will see these days, with both bands showing their chops are still razor sharp, and in each of their sets, rolling through truly a multitude of classic rock songs everyone in my demo has some kind of teen memory attached to.

Cue the keg in the basement: Dream On, Legs, Walk This Way, Tush, Sweet Emotion, La Grange, Train Kept A Rollin’, Gimme All Your Lovin, Come Together, Sharp Dressed Man, to name just a few. It was like I was riding around in Johnny Kaz’ Dart with that Strawberry Wine all over again.

Especially impressive were the voice of still-looks-like-a-Rock-God Steven Tyler, who hasn’t lost a beat and reached some high notes that I wasn’t sure he’d hit, and the ‘axcumen’ of guitar aces ZZ’s Billy Gibbons and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, who both proved that age does not have to diminish stellar guitar playing.

Photo by Flickr/justjoolie We got the new Guitar Hero Aerosmith for our PS3. I just LOVE this guitar!

Bonus: Aerosmith also rolled the entire Toys In The Attic album all the way through, which took me straight back to ripping the cellophane off and cranking it up in my bedroom at 15, having just picked it up at the local record shop and as it played, wondering, "What the **** is this amazing stuff?" Yep, my first taste of rock and roll. And all these years later, it still tastes sooo sweet.

All in all, my exhilarated rock and roll soul was shot with a jolt of rock and roll adrenaline; me, someone who’s also trying to keep his own rock dreams alive.
 
Take my band Second Wind’s myspace page for instance:
www.myspace.com/secondwindva.

Shameless plug? Sure. Hey, some rock and roll dreams never die.
 
Contact the writer at shouk151@aol.com