Aaron Lewis Review from Joe’s Live Rosemont
Aaron Lewis unleashed his vocal beast
© 2017 Always Acoustic, Aaron Lewis
Patriotism occurs in many ways. From a little boy or girl waving an American Flag to a proud marine who stands up and salutes the flag as it passes by during a parade.
Aaron Lewis and his bandmates entered Joe’s Live in Rosemont around 10:11 p.m. Aaron proceeded to remove his hat, everyone else removed theirs, and he started to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.” This brought back prideful memories of being in grade school and standing up, putting your right hand on your left chest and reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance” with pride.
Aaron Lewis then performed his first song on the Sinner Tour with “Country Boy.” During the song there were cell phones lighting the air as the audience sang alongside Aaron Lewis, including yelling out the lyrics “The Red, the White, the Blue.”
While Aaron Lewis opened on electric guitar, a majority of the songs that he performed were on acoustic guitar.
The third song into Aaron Lewis’s set, darkness surrounded the stage. Technical difficulties arose and Aaron Lewis remarked, “Trying to figure sh*t out!” Aaron Lewis figured that sh*t out and the band rolled on and performed “Northern Redneck.”
The storytelling of Aaron Lewis continued and while some songs only took fifteen minutes to write like “Right Here,” others took Aaron his entire lifetime to write. On “Mama,” Aaron remarked, “Took me my whole life to write this song.” Near the end of the song, Aaron Lewis slightly unleashed his metal vocal beast. The beast then hovered in silence until it was unleashed on “It’s Been Awhile.”
Unlike Aaron Lewis’s previous country performance at Joe’s Live on Weed Street, the audience in Rosemont knew what to expect. This is a country themed tour (the Sinner Tour) and not a solo acoustic rock performance of Aaron Lewis. Back on July 18, 2012 on Weed Street, Aaron Lewis quipped to an audience member, “You obviously didn’t pay attention to the advertising.”
The biggest thing missing from Aaron Lewis’s Rosemont performance was his creative quips in response to an audience member’s vocal disturbance. The Rosemont audience acted like obedient soldiers rather than rambunctious rebels by keeping their disturbances to a minimum.
The funniest comment of the evening by Aaron Lewis was when he flicked a guitar pick at the end of his performance on “It’s Been Awhile.” Aaron remarked as the pick was flicked, “I almost hit you in the head.”
Starting from the “Pledge of Allegiance” to Aaron Lewis’s cover of Alice in Chains’ “Rooster,” Aaron Lewis periodically lit up a cigarette. There are only a handful of musicians that can get away with lighting up a smoke inside a non-smoking venue. One is the late Scott Weiland, who lit up at Austin’s Fuel Room in Libertyville and now we can add Aaron Lewis to that list at Joe’s Live in Rosemont.
Aaron Lewis once remarked about “That Ain’t Country,” that “Sometimes the things I say get me in trouble, and I don’t really give a fu@k!” Besides saying things that may get Aaron in trouble, he likes to do things his own way.
© 2017 Always Acoustic, Luc Nyhus
Aaron Lewis conducted his performance like a box score and it was a 10-4-8 split. The split goes as follows:
• Ten songs from Aaron’s country roots (Sinner – seven songs, The Road – two songs and Town Line – one song).
• Four songs from his metal rock days with Staind.
• Eight cover songs.
The best cover of the evening was Aaron Lewis performing “Folded Flag,” which was written by his guitarist Luc Nyhus. Definitely an emotional patriotic song that Aaron Lewis should record and release!
The eight cover songs were a little excessive and they should have been limited in half. Sure they were entertaining, unfortunately, Aaron Lewis has enough material that he does not have to rely on covers to get him through the evening. Aaron Lewis should have performed some of his most popular songs like “Massachusetts,” “Forever,” “So Far Away,” “Epiphany” and/or “Failing” and Aaron’s performance would have raised from an awesome show to one of epic proportions!
One thing that Aaron Lewis proved was that his metal vocals do not worsen with age. Aaron Lewis unleashed his vocal beast as he vociferously sang, “Fu@k things up like I always do” as “It’s Been Awhile” neared its conclusion. The metal viscosity in his voice had your body cringing and anxiously awaiting for another Staind tour announcement. When the song concluded, Aaron took a drag from his cigarette and remarked, “Didn’t think the old man could still do it, huh?”
Aaron Lewis’s performance at Joe’s Live in Rosemont ranks up there as one of his best Chicago performances in a smaller venue. If Aaron Lewis can limit his cover songs on the remainder of the Sinner Tour, it would be his best country tour yet.
