No matter what happens to Aerosmith off stage, the legendary rockers showed last night at the Blaisdell Arena that when they do play, they remain arguably the greatest American rock band of all time.

No small feat, considering its iconic lead singer, Steven Tyler, is 61 and last night’s performance was both his and the band’s first together in public since Aug. 5, when Tyler severely injured himself falling off stage during a concert in South Dakota.
Tyler had to be airlifted to the hospital from that concert venue. Prior to this week, guitarist Joe Perry, 59, said the band hadn’t spoken to its flamboyant lead singer since.
But any questions of whether Tyler had recovered enough to perform were quickly answered when Tyler nailed every tune from “Ragdoll” to “Love in the Elevator,” “Crying,” “Dream On,” “Living on the Edge,” and a whole lot more.
He did his patented Tyler Shuffle, plus a burlesquelike striptease, as he shed his cloak, hat, glasses and scarfs; busted out maracas; and wailed on the harmonica when Perry played some blues.
He also took every opportunity to sidle up next to Perry, his longtime bandmate and friend who has openly criticized him for his continued rock-star lifestyle, and declared he “loved” the guys in the band.
If there was any discomfort between the two, or any of the band, it didn’t show on stage or in the music.
They were hitting the notes as if they had turned back the clock and the Bad Boys from Boston were all twenty-somethings again.
The sold-out crowd seemed to love every minute of it, regardless of age — and there was a mixture.
Many of the fans were in their 30s, 40s, 50s and — yes — 60s, and they were all making their decade look like the new 20s for a night.
The band looked comfortable together on stage, as it should after 30 years. Mostly, it looked like they were enjoying themselves as much as the crowd.
Perry, at one point near the end, played himself in “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” — and won.
Aerosmith is off today, but plays again tomorrow night at War Memorial Stadium on Maui.
That concert is part of a court settlement after the band canceled its performance on Maui in 2007.
Perry may have summed up the band’s arrival in Hawaiçi best when he took a break to announce a song.
“It’s been way too long since we played this place,” he said.
It sounded like pure “Sweet Emotion” when he said it, too.