Global Warming Tour

Global Warming Tour

Tour by Aerosmith
Location	North America, South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe
Associated album	Music from Another Dimension!
Start date	May 30, 2012 (2012-05-30)
End date	June 28, 2014 (2014-06-28)
Legs	8
No. of shows	41 in North America 5 in Oceania 6 in Asia 7 in South America 15 in Europe 77 total 6 cancelled
Aerosmith concert chronology

The Global Warming Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith that included 67 concert performances across North America, Oceania, Asia and Latin America. Prior to the first leg of the tour, the band played a private event for Walmart shareholders. The first leg of the tour included 23 performances and lasted from late May through early August 2012. The second leg included 14 performances in November and December 2012. Before the second leg of the tour, the band performed a brief set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in mid September. Also prior to the second leg, to promote the release of their new album in early November, the band made three special nationally-televised performances in New York City and also did a special performance in front of their old Boston apartment. The performances on the first two legs of the tour were held primarily in indoor arenas, with a couple outdoor shows and a few festival dates on the first leg, including three festivals in eastern Canada and Milwaukee's Summerfest. The third leg of the tour ran from late April to mid May 2013 and saw Aerosmith playing their first shows in Australia since 1990, as well as their first-ever shows in New Zealand and the Philippines. On May 30, the band performed as part of the "Boston Strong" charity concert for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. In July 2013, the band played at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia and at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. In August 2013, the band performed four concerts in Japan, but their first-ever shows in China and Taiwan were cancelled due to poor ticket sales. The band also performed in August at the Harley-Davidson 110th anniversary concert series in Milwaukee. Concerts were planned for Latin America in September and October, including their first-ever shows in Uruguay, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Cheap Trick was the opening act for all dates in the first two legs except for a few festival shows.^[1] The Dead Dasies, a supergroup featuring Jon Stevens and Richard Fortus, were the opening act for the Australia/New Zealand leg. The tour is in promotion of Aerosmith's new album Music from Another Dimension!, released on November 6, 2012.^[2] In addition to many of their biggest hits and a few choice album cuts, the band has so far performed four new songs from Music from Another Dimension on this tour, three of them regularly ("Oh Yeah", "Legendary Child", and "Lover Alot"), with the potential for more songs to be played in the 2013 leg. During the South America leg, specifically in Argentina and Brazil, Aerosmith toured with Whitesnake, including performances at the Personal Fest in Buenos Aires and at the Monsters of Rock in São Paulo.

On May 5, 2013, the band announced they had cancelled their first-ever show in Jakarta due to safety concerns.^[3]

In 2014, Aerosmith played 17 concerts across Europe from May 14 to July 2. A new tour, the Let Rock Rule Tour, was scheduled to follow in July, August, and September 2014 that saw Aerosmith play several dates in North America. This tour featured Slash (with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators) as the opening act. Full details of the tour were announced on April 8, 2014.^[4][5] On May 14, 2014, the band announced that they had cancelled their concert in Istanbul after Turkey declared a three-day mourning for the victims of Soma mine disaster.^[6] July 2, 2014 concert in Kiev was cancelled due to civil unrest in Ukraine.^[7]

Tour dates

Stage setup

The stage was very close to the design of past tours. The main stage, occupying one end of the venue had the classic Aerosmith logo painted on top and two small platforms off to each side. Like normal, Joey's drums are at the back, Tom and Brad are on the left side, and Joe is on the right side. The back-up musicians were at the back-left of the stage behind a stack of amps, the order usually went Melanie (backing vocals), Mindi (saxophone and backing vocals) and Russ (keyboards and backing vocals). In the middle of the main stage was the catwalk, which ran through nine rows at each venue. At the end of the catwalk was a B-stage, which ran through the tenth row to the sixteenth row. Around the entire stage was a half-meter wide barricade that contained security and a few select fans.

Performance

The show would start with a video playing on the main video screen that was reminiscent of the original opening from The Outer Limits. Near the end of the video, smoke would arise from the end of the B-stage and from the main stage. When the video finished, Joey, Brad, Tom, and Joe would kick into the opening song while Steven and Joe would rise from a trapdoor at the end of the B-stage. For the first song, Steven and Joe would stay on the B-stage and the rest of the band would stay on the main stage. After the first song finished, Tom, Brad, Steven, and Joe would all go where they pleased. At "What It Takes", Steven would look for an attractive girl to sing the opening lines, like in most tours. At the encore which was "Dream On" at every date, smoke would again appear from the end of the B-stage and Steven on a white piano would appear from the same trapdoor as before. The piano had a few blocks beside it used as stairs by Joe and Steven, as they would walk on top of the piano. They followed with a second encore – "Train Kept A-Rollin'" – and at a few venues, a third encore was even played, either "Mama Kin" or "Chip Away the Stone". When the encores wrapped up, a few cannons fired silver confetti into the audience. After the confetti storm, Steven would introduce the back-up musicians (Melanie, Mindi and Russ) and the members of Aerosmith. Finally, he would hand the microphone off to Joe, who would introduce Steven. After the intros, the band would walk out with "Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters playing over the speakers.

• Top 200 North American Tours 2012: #23^[8]
• Total Gross: US $31 million
• Total Attendance: 306,475 (33 concerts)

Notes

• Aerosmith premiered five new songs on this tour, "Oh Yeah", "Legendary Child", "What Could Have Been Love", "Lover Alot", "Freedom Fighter" and an excerpt from "Street Jesus".
• Brad's son, Harrison Whitford, played "Last Child" with Aerosmith at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
• Brad's other son, Graham Whitford, played "Last Child" with Aerosmith at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• At the Hollywood Bowl, instead of Steven and Joe appearing from a trapdoor at the end of the catwalk, Stan Lee introduced the band and Aerosmith simply walked out on the stage.
• Acclaimed actor Johnny Depp played rhythm guitar and one solo with Aerosmith on "Train Kept A-Rollin'" in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl and also on "Come Together" and "Stop Messin' Around" at the Staples Center.
• Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon, provided extra vocals on "Come Together" at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• "Lick and a Promise" got its first play in 24 years on United States soil, the last time being at the Pacific Coast Amphitheater in Costa Mesa on September 15, 1988, on the Permanent Vacation Tour.
• Aerosmith performed a clip of "Woman of the World" in Atlanta at the Phillips Center, a song that hasn't been played anywhere since 1974.
• Aerosmith had to re-schedule their show in Bristow, Virginia, because of reported voice problems by Tyler. It was originally scheduled for July 3 but got moved to August 12. Also, because of a difficult political situation in Ukraine, the show in Kyiv was moved from May 21 to July 2, 2014.
• Jesse Sky Kramer joined his father on percussion for many songs at every show this tour.
• This is the first tour where Aerosmith recruited back-up singers other than Russ Irwin.
• Steven joined with Joey on drums during "Combination" at every date.
• At a few shows, saxophonist and back-up singer Mindi Abair jammed with Joey during his drum solo.
• On some nights Brad played guitar and provided backing vocals on "Ain't That a Shame" or "Surrender" with opening act Cheap Trick.^[9] On other nights, Steven would run out during "I Want You to Want Me" and play with Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson and guitarist Rick Nielsen and help sing the chorus, then quickly exit.^[10]
• Guns N' Roses former rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin joined Aerosmith on stage on "Mama Kin" during the band's performance at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
• Russ Irwin, Aerosmith keyboardist, occasionally would perform the "Abbey Road Medley" (originally by The Beatles) with Cheap Trick during their set.
• At the Sunrise, Florida, show on 12/09, Richie Supa, famous Aerosmith collaborator, performed on "Chip Away the Stone".
• On the 11/27 Toronto show, Aerosmith performed "Red House" as an homage to Jimi Hendrix on what would have been his seventieth birthday.
• Before the Melbourne show, Tom suffered a chest infection and was flown home. David Hull from the Joe Perry Project was flown in from the United States to play in his place. Tom was set to return with the band after the Australian dates.

List of songs played

Setlist

Personnel

Aerosmith

• Steven Tyler – lead vocals, harmonica, percussion, piano
• Joe Perry – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals, pedal steel guitar, talkbox
• Brad Whitford – guitar
• Tom Hamilton – bass, backing vocals
• Joey Kramer – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

• Russ Irwin – keyboards, backing vocals, percussion, guitar (until 2014-04-08)
• Mindi Abair – saxophones (First leg)
• Melanie Taylor – backing vocals, percussion (First leg)
• Jesse Sky Kramer – percussion
• David Hull – bass (after Tom leaves due to sickness)
• Buck Johnson – keyboards, backing vocals (after Russ Irwin quits the band beginning on 2014-05-17)

References