Aerosmith were 'in the house' at the Exiles Rugby Ground last night.
Expected the usual Dubai traffic nightmare so, as the concert started at 10pm we left home at about 7:30pm. Murphy’s Law, there was hardly any traffic, the trip only took about 35 minutes and there was heaps of space available in the club carpark. Although it was early, queues were already starting to form for food and drink. The caterers were running the system where people queued up to buy a ticket then had to queue up again somewhere else to get their food/beer (Budweiser beer in red plastic cups). Even early in the evening it was obvious that this system was not going to work, and subsequently I’ve heard many complaints about long delays. This has really annoyed a lot of people as it was 44 degrees during the day and wasn’t much cooler in the evening and the security guards confiscated all outside food and drink when you entered the ground including bottles of water. One person recounted that it took 45 minutes for him to go through the queue-token-queue-purchase system just to buy 2 bottles of water. We snuck our water in, thank goodness for being a bit older and looking 'respectable’!
We were in the standing area behind the moshpit and the heat was absolutely suffocating. The band came on about 30 minutes late and played for 90 minutes. I have to say it, I was disappointed, although the music sounded good and they played all their biggest songs (opened with ‘Love in an Elevator’). For some reason, they just didn’t connect with the audience. It really seemed to be a performance where they were going through the motions and striking the rock star poses. Sadly, while Mick Jagger still seems to be able to ‘do the business’, Steve Tyler has become a caricature of himself. He did the usual macho rock star ‘why don’t you come backstage’ thing to a pretty girl in the mosh pit and interestingly the crowd reaction was more “eeuww” than “phewrr”. His voice is also showing the signs of years of abuse. “Dream On”, great song, is a challenge and he pulled it off last night, but I wonder if his voice will hold out for the entire tour.
Like a lot of people, the overwhelming heat finally got to us and we left before the end of the show. I didn’t get to hear “Janey’s got a gun” or “Walk this way” as they played them last. (Many in the audience possibly wouldn't know that WTW was around before RunDMC.)
Maybe the tour arrangers had no choice but, for Dubai, the show was a month too late, the weather has changed, and it's just too hot. The band had cold air on them the whole time pumped out through large fans (mechanical ones not human ones) but for the audience it was almost unbearable. Someone asked me "Were people dancing?" No way! Dancing would only have made you hotter.
Dubai needs an arena for outdoor shows, there are arenas being built for everything else so why not a performance venue?
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