Toronto Star, July 1997
Few rock performers match the stage strutting and microphone twirling antics of flamboyant frontman Steven Tyler, who's a year shy of 50. His energy and Hollywood flash go a long way to explain the staying power of the Boston quintet (25 years, 12 studio albums, 70 million CD's sold) who wowed a near-sell-out crowd of 16,000 at Molson Ampitheatre last night. The indefatigable singer lead the band through a greatest hits package that included a hefty offering of classics like "Toys in the Attic," "Mamma Kin," and "Sweet Emotion," and more recent hits "Cryin," "Love in an Elevator," and "Falling in Love is so Hard on the Knees."
Sure there were hoary rock 'n' roll cliches. Tyler's black sunglasses, and exagerated grimaces, leather-clad Joe Perry's stotic expression while wailing out virtuoso guitar lines, dry ice and three giant, red-eyed cobras that looked great even if their signifigance was uncertain.
But the largely over-30 crowd loved it. When the band played "Dream On," sounding virtually as they recorded it on their 1972 eponymous debut, grown men in the audience were reduced to tears and spontaneous hugging.
(Tyler may open the ballad with the lyrics "Every time that I look in the mirror/All these lines on my face getting clearer." Not a chance. His line-free face is a walking advertisment for facials, which he and daughter-actress Liv Tyler do together apparentely).
Tyler kept his introductions to a minimum, though he muttered something about the bands latest album being called Nine Lives. The title of course is the band's commentary on it's longevity despite years of intense drug use and other self-destructive behavior. The album, which came out earlier this year, has been slow to match the sales success of the band's comeback albums, 1989's Pump and 1993's Get A Grip. But if the band is feeling any pressure this tour shows it's too soon to count them out.