Aerosmith Raid the Attic for “Toys”

Aerosmith will play all night long if you let them.

Playing one of your classic albums straight through: it’s not just for indie bands anymore.

Okay, the trend originated with Pink Floyd, who would play Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall straight through when they toured behind those albums. Lately, it’s been an indie rock obsession (see Built to Spill, the Lemonheads, and various others.)

Aerosmith know a good thing when they see one, and for their summer tour, the band has been busting out the 1975 all-time classic Toys in the Attic in it’s entirety. Well, almost in it’s entirety. Guitarist Joe Perry tells VH1 Classic Radio that “You See My Crying,” the album’s closing track, is too hard for Steven Tyler to sing these days. “It’s one of the toughest songs probably in our catalog,” he notes.

Perry has also suggested that the band, currently on tour with ZZ Top, will alternate full readings of 1976’s Rocks, and potentially 1979’s somewhat Perry-less Night In The Ruts album, in Toys’ place. “I think there are probably two songs on there that we could play pretty much right off the bat,” the guitarist told Reuters. “The rest of them we’d have to sit down and really take them apart, relearn all the guitar parts.”

The Boston rock legends have been without the services of guitarist Brad Whitford, who required surgery after injuring his head while exiting his Ferrari (Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer almost lost his life in a car fire in 1998; he was also driving a Ferrari.) Whitford will rejoin the band on July 7 in Raleigh, North Carolina.