Rockin' the Joint (2006)
1.Good Evening Las Vegas
2.Beyond Beautiful
3.Same Old Song and Dance
4.No More No More
5.Seasons of Wither
6.Light Inside
7.Draw the Line
8.I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
9.Big Ten Inch Record
10.Rattlesnake Shake
11.Walk This Way
12.Train Kept' A-Rollin
Las Vegas, a city often caricatured as a neon-lit haven of superficial glitz, proved an unlikely site for one of Aerosmith’s most rooted and unexpectedly reverent live albums. Rockin’ the Joint, recorded at the Hard Rock Café, eschews the saccharine comforts of their latter-day chart dominance in favor of something more visceral: a return to the raw, sweat-drenched roots of their early catalog.
Midway through the performance, Steven Tyler provocatively bellows, “You like the old sh!t, or the new?!” The crowd’s response — a resounding vote for the old — cues not only a shift in setlist, but a philosophical orientation for the record. Instead of the well-worn hits and overproduced ballads that had marked their commercial zenith, the band plunges into the relatively neglected corners of their back catalog. The result? A setlist that doesn’t pander, but reaffirms.
Nowhere is this more evident than in their volcanic rendition of Draw the Line, a track often buried beneath the weight of their commercial legacy. Here, it becomes a snarling centerpiece. Equally revelatory is No More, No More — seldom heard live — which reemerges with all the ragged elegance of a forgotten classic. In a move both reverent and subversive, they also cover Fleetwood Mac’s pre-pop incarnation with Rattlesnake Shake, leaning deep into the blues tradition that has always undergirded their swagger. It’s a moment that presages their later, full-blown homage to the genre on Honkin’ on Bobo.
Of course, the band cannot resist a glance in the rearview mirror of commercial success. I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing makes its obligatory appearance — syrupy, overwrought, and unmistakably alien to the rest of the set. And yet, its incongruity only underscores the cohesion of the surrounding material. When juxtaposed with the sinewy grind of older tracks, Diane Warren’s blockbuster ballad feels like a ghost from another band entirely.
Curiously, two tracks from the then-recent Just Push Play also make the cut — but these are deep album cuts, chosen for atmosphere rather than acclaim. Rather than jarring, they serve as connective tissue, echoing the band’s persistent instincts for rhythm and risk.
Did Aerosmith need another live album at this juncture in their career? Arguably not. But Rockin’ the Joint offers more than redundancy. It serves as a pointed reminder of what Aerosmith once were — and, on a good night in Vegas, still could be.