The venue that Aerosmith hated playing with very good reason: “We got ourselves to the emergency room”
Bad things can happen on stage. A shitty night in Chicago, or a deadbeat crowd in Manchester, or a loose wire on the stage in Toronto. When touring so often, a prolific band like Aerosmith would inevitably run into some issues along the way.
But the chances of two trips to the emergency room happening after two nights at the very same venue? Now, those chances are pretty fucking slim. And yet, the world has a funny way of turning.
The first incident happened in October 1977. They’d made it through most of the set unscathed at almost 20,000 capacity stadium, The Philadelphia Spectrum, and had returned for the long-awaited encore before, suddenly, all hell broke loose. A cherry bomb was launched onto the stage from the crowd. Chaos ensued.
Guitarist Brad Whitford later retold the story to Goldmine, reflecting, “Steven [Tyler] immediately covered his face and there was blood shooting up out of Joe [Perry]’s arm, literally. So pretty quickly, we got ourselves to the emergency room.” Eventually, Tyler would end up with a burned cornea, and Perry would end up with a ruptured artery in his band. They had to reschedule a handful of shows.
Aerosmith soon proved that they would likely survive a decent amount of time if they were in the world of Final Destination, as they decided to skip that venue for a little while. They were, in Whitford’s words, “shaken by it and extremely pissed off.” They turned down plenty of decent offers to return to the haunted Philadelphia venue.
It took them over a year to return. On November 25th, the rock titans finally felt ready to take it on again. They were greeted by signs expressing the venue’s sympathy for the situation the previous year. Right, they thought, we’re off to a good start.
I’ve been to Philadelphia. I’ve meandered around the art galleries and sipped weak lattes in the coffee shops. I’ve taken a photo with the famous Rocky statue, and plodded around the Wissahickon River. But a twenty-first-century summer in the city is wildly different to the late 1970s, which saw the violent confrontation between police and the MOVE organisation in 1978. The MOVE group fought for a future of revolutionary ideology and environmentalism, advocating for a return to a simpler life by rejecting modern technology and medicine.
This meant that tensions were already high in the city. As a result, Aerosmith would’ve been better sticking to the cosy confines of their tour bus, for disaster struck again. This time, it came earlier, only 20 minutes or so into the show, when a fan lobbed a glass bottle onto the stage from the balcony.
Whitford told all, sharing, “Again, here’s Steven covering his face so badly. A bottle hit the monitor directly in front of him and became shrapnel. Pieces of glass had literally gone through his face, through his cheeks, into his mouth, and out.” Amazingly, Tyler made it backstage with his mouth bleeding all over the floor, and insisted on going back out to perform for their fans.
The rest of the band put their foot down: No chance. They were speeding out of the venue in their limousines in a matter of minutes. Fuck that.
