Through out my life I have always had this one story I would tell about my first concert. It’s a funny story because I was in 7th grade and I had heard that Aerosmith was going to be coming to town. In those days (and I am sure even now) not many national acts such as Aerosmith really came through Savannah, GA. I mean, why would you? Atlanta, GA and Jacksonville, Florida were the two larger cities north and south of Savannah and usually they got all of the great touring acts. Only on occasion would big rock groups come through town so in the event that one did, everyone in town would go. Or at least if felt that way.
So, at some point the announcement was made that Aerosmith would be playing the Savannah Civic Center as apart of the “Pump” tour. I was 13 years old and my voice had just recently changed to a lower register. I just taken up playing the guitar only a year earlier and I had really wanted to experience rock and roll in it’s purest form–the live performance. I had friends at school who were a little older than I who would tell me when a rock show would come through town. Mostly, the only bands that would come through town were hair metal bands like Poison, Cinderella, Motley Crue and bands like that. Looking back, I am sure it would have been really neat to have seen these bands now. Unfortunately, at the time I just was not into that sort of music scene. I was a weird kid and things like hairspray, spandex pants, and things covered in leopard strips just never really appealed to me. Anyhow, when the chatter at the school lunch table shifted towards this upcoming Aerosmith concert my ears perked up and my brain started thinking. I had decided that this was the show I wanted to go see. I had never been to any real concert and well Aerosmith seemed like a safe bet.
I remember coming home that day and seeing my Mother and my sister talking in the kitchen. I knew it was going to be a long shot but I thought I would come right out with it. As my mom asked me about my day at school all I could think about was this concert and how I really needed to go. I finally got up enough courage to ask my mom if I could go to the Aerosmith show and with out even batting an eye her reply was “No”. My mother was famous around the house for saying “No”. 9 times out of 10 if I wanted to do something which required asking permission I would get the obligatory “No” from my mom. She was protective and she did not want anything to happen to her young cub-like son. Besides bands like Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin were, by my mother’s generation, considered “Heavy Metal” and everyone knows that people who like Heavy Metal worship Satan, smoke lots of marijuana and play records backwards.
As luck would have it, my sister chimed into the conversation. I think she may have been feeling sympathetic towards me. Maybe she remembered that time back in 1986 when I was in 4th grade and the Monkees had come into town (Baltimore, MD) and I really wanted to go but was told “No” while my sister was allowed to go with her friends. Needless to say, my sister offered to take me and act as a chaperon to help shield me from all of the pot smoke and razor blades that you’d expect to see at a rock concert. With my sister on my side we were able to over turn my mother’s ruling of “No” and so on May 9th, 1990 I was going to go see Aerosmith.
My memories of the concert were of sheer excitement. I can’t remember if the show was a sell out or not but it seemed like all out hysteria. There were people everywhere and I watched the arena floor fill up with people. I remember looking all around the arena and just seeing mobs and mobs of people. I was excited without a doubt. I remember the opening act that night was none other than Joan Jett. As she came out on stage the crowd went absolutely crazy. Our seats were way up on the 2nd Tier of seats and she look sort of small but sure enough it was really her. I remember thinking about how I saw that Michael J. Fox movie that Joan Jett was in called “The Light of Day” and thinking to myself, “Wow, that’s really her.”. Joan Jett certainly played all of her hits that night and song after song you could just watch the entertainment starved crowd getting more rowdy and more bonkers. At one point kids were throwing around plastic bottles and Joan Jett had to stop the show and yell at the audience to stop throwing stuff. It was amazing. I had never been to a concert let alone ever expected some one to stop and start yelling at the audience. My mind was in the process of being blown.
After Joan Jett finished up, Aerosmith took the stage. Their stage set up for the Pump Tour was made to look like they were performing on the top of some old city building/hotel complete with a skyline and smoking chimneys and the name of whatever city they were playing in behind them. The band came out and began playing and it looked just like every Aerosmith video I had ever seen. I mean down to the gypsy-like Stevie Nicks scarf that Steven Tyler had around the mic stand to the rest of the band and their long flowing locks. They played a bunch of their more modern hits like “Dude looks like a lady” and the recently released “Love in an Elevator” which made the crowd absolutely go mad. The one thing that really just destroyed my mind happened during one of Aerosmith’s most famous and beloved songs, “Sweet Emotion”.
I will never forget this as long as I live. As the band was performing this song the crowd was just getting more and more frenzied. It was like a volcano about to erupt. I remember looking down at the crowd just at the right moment when I saw a kid on the arena floor hurl, with all of his might, a tennis shoe towards the stage. It seemed to fly in slow motion, end over end, closer and closer to the stage. I looked in utter disbelief as this black Converse all-star flew through the air and with some distinct force struck drummer, Joey Kramer, square in the face. I was stunned as I watched the rest of the band continue for a few seconds before they realized that their drummer was no longer playing the song. Everyone in the band rushed towards the drum riser to aid of the fallen drummer and after only a few seconds Joey Kramer gave the “I’m O.K.” look and immediately just started back into the song catching the rest of the band off guard. It blew me away. The funniest thing about this moment was Aerosmith and/or Steven Tyler never once addressed the issue. They never said a thing. They finished up the song/jam that went on for another 8 or so minutes. The crowd went crazy and the band never mentioned the incident. Absolutely stunning. I am not sure if the members of Aerosmith remember that incident. It’s possible they don’t because just looking at the way they handled it made me think that this kind of thing must happen every night for them.
As a treat, I am going to post the excerpt from this very concert and song. If you listen close you can hear Joe Perry say, “What happened to him?” after the band stops. God bless the internet for allowing me to find this.
