Watch Aerosmith Star in New Las Vegas TV Commercial
by Martin KieltyAerosmith star in a new TV commercial released by Visit Las Vegas that promotes the city’s distinctive cultural status. After a series of scenes showing the adventurous and indulgent nature of the destination, singer Steven Tyler is seen onstage with his bandmates, leading the crowd through a chant of the city slogan, “What happens here only happens here.”
You can watch the commercial below.
Aerosmith’s current Deuces Are Wild residency at the Park MGM’s Park Theater started in April 2019 and continues until June 4. Soon after the run began, guitarist Joe Perry admitted he had some doubts about the concept.
“I thought I was going to be bored doing this by now, the way everybody was talking about it," he said. "You know, ‘You don't have to travel every day. It's all automated, the lights, moving stuff.’ Well, the bottom line is, when we go out there, it's a new audience, and it's like a whole different show. … You have to go out there and win them over. If you have a night where everything was great, you still gotta do another great one tomorrow. You gotta try. You're always starting from zero every time you walk out there. So, that part is exciting. Frankly, I haven't been bored yet.”
The show features material from throughout the band’s history, along with additional musicians to provide new arrangements. “You're immersed in Aerosmith's world when you come to this show, and that's the difference," Perry said. "It was important to us to maintain the hardcore, garage-band feel of what Aerosmith is and try to bring in the big-show element of a Las Vegas show.”
He described the short movie that opens the show as “most important." “When we showed that film the first couple times, people were actually crying in the audience," he said. "They were saying, 'I remember them when they played there!’ or ‘I remember when I first heard that song!’ or whatever.”
Ranking Every Aerosmith Album
15: 'Nine Lives' (1997)
Perhaps overwhelmed after signing a huge new record deal, 'Nine Lives' is simply too calculated. Outsiders contribute to every song, which then tick off the required boxes – single-entendre rockers ("Falling in Love [Is Hard on the Knees]"), power ballads ("Hole in My Soul"), an attempt at hipster modernity ("Pink"). "The Farm" has a cool Beatles-type ambition, but it's too little too late.
14: 'Just Push Play' (2001)
A Top 10 hit ("Jaded") was just another distraction for a band then surrounded by them. In fact, Joe Perry has said the unfocused 'Just Push Play' was an example of how not to make an album. Still, they occasionally moved closer to Aerosmith's classic sound here, even if – in search of a contemporary spark – they unwisely tried rap metal on the title track and "Outta Your Head."
13: 'Get a Grip' (1993)
This sold like gangbusters, becoming one of Aerosmith's biggest hits on the strength of ubiquitous power ballad smashes like "Cryin'" and "Crazy," but the formula from their well-received comeback records 'Permanent Vacation' and 'Pump' was finally becoming both a bit too obvious, and a bit too threadbare.
12: 'Music From Another Dimension' (2012)
Aerosmith's first album of original material since 2001's 'Just Push Play' didn't answer the question of where the group was headed. They're still all over the map, still trying to be too many things to too many people – all while internal tensions pull at every corner. Joe Perry saves them with a bag full of riffs he'd obviously been saving all along.
11: 'Honkin' on Bobo' (2004)
The idea – a return to their blues-rock roots with a series of old covers – couldn't have been more retrograde, and on one level there's nothing necessarily new about anything here. But after years of searching for the next thing, there was no small amount of comfort in hearing Aerosmith sound so very much like the old thing once more.
10: 'Rock in a Hard Place' (1982)
It couldn't have been worse for Aerosmith, right? Joe Perry was gone, and Brad Whitford soon followed him out the door. That cover of a Julie London hit didn't inspire much confidence either. Funny thing, though: They experiment in ways they might not have before, and "Lightning Strikes" was as tough as anything Aerosmith had ever done.
9: 'Night in the Ruts' (1979)
Everything fell apart for Aerosmith in the middle of this project, as Joe Perry and longtime producer Jack Douglas both exited. Yet they somehow returned to their bedrock raunch as a band, after a bit of experimentalism on 'Draw the Line,' even as they hinted at a new polish that would propel Aerosmith to unimaginable heights in the '80s.
8: 'Done With Mirrors' (1985)
Don't let anybody tell you that Aerosmith's comeback started anywhere else but here. In a better world, this gloriously shambling collection of underrated gems would have brought them back to the top without synthesizers or outside writers.
7: 'Draw the Line' (1977)
Anyone else might have stayed the course after outsized successes with 'Rocks' and 'Toys in the Attic.' Instead, Aerosmith thwarted expectations, adding an intriguing mix of mandolins, keyboards, banjos and even girl singers to their basic recipe of grimy rock. Perhaps expectedly, the results "only" went double platinum. Then Aerosmith began to fracture, and this was unjustly forgotten.
6: 'Permanent Vacation' (1987)
Aerosmith's comeback started with 'Done With Mirrors,' but they didn't get going commercially until this album – which zoomed to five-times platinum sales behind a trio of Top 20 songs. Older fans may have chafed at producer Bruce Fairbairn's studio tricks, to say nothing of the arrival of outside songwriters, but Aerosmith had never been bigger. Well, so far anyway.
5: 'Aerosmith' (1973)
The definition of a grower, this self-titled debut – and its best song, the proto-power ballad "Dream On" – went nowhere at first. That was no fault of Aerosmith's, actually. They arrived here fully formed as an American hybrid of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and your favorite bawdy bar band. Everybody finally learned that when "Dream On" went Top 10 in 1976.
4: 'Pump' (1989)
Were there any more unlikely MTV stars? Now cleaned up and fully focused, Aerosmith combined everything that worked in their drug-addled first era with a then-modern hitmaking sheen. To say it worked is a wild understatement. 'Toys in the Attic' has sold more copies, but it took decades to accomplish what 'Pump' – with three Top 10 smash singles – did almost immediately.
3: 'Get Your Wings' (1974)
Jack Douglas provides the final piece of Aerosmith's glory-years puzzle. This is the platform from which everything followed. Steven Tyler is finally emboldened enough to proclaim himself "Lord of the Thighs," even as Aerosmith blows a hole in "The Train Kept a Rollin'." But there's also the new sense of controlled brilliance of "Seasons of Wither." The stage is set.
2: 'Rocks' (1976)
As popular as it was influential, 'Rocks' spawned two Top 40 hits even as it constructed a foundation for next-gen bands like Metallica and Guns N' Roses. More raw and direct than the earlier 'Toys in the Attic,' this album finishes second by a whisker – if only because, for all of its strengths, 'Rocks' tends to sound like an echo of its predecessor rather than something entirely new.
1: 'Toys in the Attic' (1975)
Steven Tyler found his essential rock-star deviance, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford tangled brilliantly, the rhythm section played with a street-wise menace and Jack Douglas captured them just as they were. "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion" established their legend, while a scorching cover of "Big Ten-Inch Record" helped complete their story. Aerosmith have never had a bigger hit, or deserved it more.