If you've seen Aerosmith perform lately, you know the band still rocks. At 7 on Thursday, Feb. 26, at select theaters, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers kick off a monthly Classic Music Series with Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014, a concert film featuring a 19-song set list including hits such as “Love In An Elevator,” “Janie’s Got A Gun,“ “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing,” “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” “Walk This Way,” “Dream On,” “Sweet Emotion” and many more. The band’s Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford recently participated in a conference call to talk about the movie.
“It was just a night where everything, not only just really set in for the band,” says Hamilton when asked about what the made the concert so special. “The band was so tight that night, yet we could relax and just have fun. Get off on the insane crowd there. Man.”
Whitford agrees.
“Donington always held a special place for bands of all types, just to be invited at Donington has always been special,” he says. “It just had a magic about it. We were excited just to be there. It didn't dawn on us right away or we didn't plan right away that we were going to be making a film out of it. To be able to capture that moment like we did was great because it does hold a special place for all us rock and rollers.”
The group recruited veteran rock video director Dick Carruthers to direct the film.
“It's a night in the tour, but it's also something that's really filmed and interpreted beautifully,” says Hamilton. “The sound is awesome. The band played really well that night. Every time we've been there, it's been probably the funkiest, most earthy audience band situation on the tour. Usually the crowd has been there for a few days, and it's been raining. The last two times we played there, it rained all day long and into the opening act. Who was it? One of the opening acts is out there and it's raining. Then, we always seem to luck out and it stops raining to a reasonable amount. We're lucky that way. The audience gets a particular aroma between the mud and the people who just felt it was too far to go to the porti-cans. Whatever bodily fluids were happening makes up the dirt. It's great. Oh my god. It smells like you're on a farm.”
Hamilton and Whitford, who said the band will embark on a tour this summer even though it doesn't have a new studio album in the works, stressed that the movie was made without any edits. They insist the concert you see on the screen is the concert they played that night.
“It’s a very accurate representation,” says Whitford. “You see it exactly as it happened. There's not a single thing that was fixed on it. It is life as it happens. That comes across. No gimmicks. In this particular show, you're hearing it exactly as it happened. There's no over-dubs. Nothing's been fixed on it or repaired. It's just been sonically enhanced. If you weren't there and you go see this in the theater, you’re going to see it just as good as it could be possibly represented to you.”
And like any hard rock performance, it’s meant to be heard loud. Real loud.
“I can see why people are enjoying it as a theater experience because you can go in there,” says Hamilton. “You can listen to it really loud, and nobody's blabbing to you while you're trying to listen to it. You're really much more immersed at it than you can be at home unless you’re absolutely by yourself. Particularly, when they do whatever they do to get mentally and spiritually prepared for a rock show. Get that done, only in Colorado where it's not against the law. Then you go in and just have that intensity.”
Find a schedule of showings at fathomevents.com.
