Aerosmith · Cheap Trick

This one's special. June 18, 2004, the Post-Gazette Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown — the first show I ever went to with Catrina, who would later become my wife. Of all the shows on this site, this one I always come back to.

We made a whole day of it. Star Lake without a tailgate is barely Star Lake at all, so we got out there early with a big group of friends — Carter Salmons, Mark Rozum, Jason Ballard, Amy Howell, and a bunch more — and set up shop in the parking lot for a proper afternoon of cooking, drinking, and catching up. I was on grill duty: chicken, brats, sides, the works. Hot summer afternoon, beers cold, friends everywhere, a packed lot rolling toward an Aerosmith headline. Hard to do much better than that.

Cheap Trick opened, which on its own would be enough to make a night memorable. Robin Zander's voice still soaring, Rick Nielsen with his trademark stack of Hamer guitars, running through "I Want You to Want Me," "Surrender," "The Flame," "Dream Police," and the rest of the catalog. They've been a great rock and roll band for fifty years for a reason, and the Star Lake lawn was already on its feet by the time they were halfway through.

Then Aerosmith. The Honkin' on Bobo tour was an interesting one — they were supporting their blues covers album of the same name (released a few months before the tour), so the setlist was a real mix. You got the hits — "Toys in the Attic" as the opener, "Love in an Elevator," "Cryin'," "Jaded," "Dream On," "Draw the Line," "Walk This Way," "Sweet Emotion," "Livin' on the Edge," "Train Kept A-Rollin'" — but also a deep run of blues material right in the middle: a Beatles "Come Together," Bo Diddley's "Road Runner," "Back Back Train," "Shame Shame Shame," "Walking the Dog," "Stop Messin' Round," and a James Brown cover. It was one of the more eclectic Aerosmith sets you could see, and watching Steven Tyler and Joe Perry settle into the old blues stuff they grew up on was actually a treat — that's where they came from in the first place. Tyler at 56 was still a complete tornado on stage, no signs of slowing down.

Best part of the night was sharing it with Catrina. The first concert you go to with someone special is always one you remember, and I lucked out that mine was Aerosmith and Cheap Trick on a perfect summer evening at Star Lake with most of my favorite people in the parking lot beforehand. Still one of my favorite nights, twenty years on.