Aerosmith can put on one hell of a show and are still very much doing so today. The rock band’s career has spanned 15 albums, 54 years, and countless tours. You’d think they’d cover every song in their discography by now during their live sets. However, there are a few songs out there that Aerosmith will rarely perform live; and some that have never been heard live, period. Let’s look at four examples!
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1. “Out Go The Lights”
This track from the 2012 record Music From Another Dimension! has rarely ever been heard live from the band in the years since it was released. It’s a seven-minute jam session that the band would adjust and change live on the rare occasion that they would perform it. Nowadays, though, the song isn’t heard all that often. It’s not abundantly clear why, but there’s a chance the band prefers to play better-known hits rather than deep cuts.
2. “Critical Mass”
“Critical Mass” is from the band’s 1977 album Draw The Line. It’s another somewhat bluesy rock track that didn’t get much love when it was released. It’s also rarely performed live, and apparently that is because the band isn’t that keen on it.
In the Aerosmith memoir Walk This Way, producer Jack Douglas said that Steven Tyler took lyrics he had written and didn’t alter them in any way; namely because he was too high out of his mind to write anything on his own.
3. “Joanie’s Butterfly”
Rock In A Hard Place is one of the band’s albums that rarely gets any playtime on stage. The album has only one single, “Lightning Strikes”, which occasionally makes it to set lists nowadays. Another track from the album is “Joanie’s Butterfly”, which became a bit of a fan-favorite deep cut. Unfortunately, the psychedelic song allegedly full of sexual metaphors never gets a live performance. This is likely due to the fact that it was written during a period when Joe Perry wasn’t in the band, and the album itself is not very popular.
4. “Ain’t That A B*tch”
This Nine Lives single is a great example of how raspy and high Tyler can go with his screams. It’s a lovely little ballad, but it’s unlikely that Tyler can sing it safely decades later. Plus, the song as a whole is just very hard to play; we’re lucky we even got a recorded version.
Photo by Katarina Benzova
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