Review: ROCK THIS WAY at Shadowbox Live!

In 1979, Van Halen and Aerosmith, two bands heading in polar directions, collided at the CaliFFornia World Music Festival. On the strength of their self-titled debut, Van Halen was poised to become the biggest band in the world. They were about to usurp Aerosmith, which seemed to be on the verge of self-destruction. The quartet of lead singer David Lee Roth, bassist Michael Anthony, and the Van Halen brothers Eddie and Alex decided the festival would be the perfect time to rub some salt into Aerosmith’s wounds.

Roth wrote in his 2000 memoir “Crazy From The Heat,” the plan was to announce over the PA system a vintage of Volkswagen Beetle belonging to a member of Aerosmith needed to be moved immediately. Then, before Van Halen took the stage, they would show footage of a Sherman tank crushing the Volkswagen Beetle. However, members of Aerosmith foiled the plot and Roth never spoke to Aerosmith’s frontman Steven Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, or drummer Joey Kramer again.

In its show, Rock This Way, Shadowbox Live! did something the members of Van Halen and Aerosmith could never do. The theater troupe proved the music of the two bands could peacefully co-exist … even if the members of the band couldn’t. ROCK THIS WAY, which presents 12 songs of Aerosmith and 11 songs of Van Halen in a two-act firefight, will run through June 1.

Assembled by producing director Julie Klein, musical director Matthew Hahn, and choreographer Katy Psenicka, ROCK THIS WAY is part homage, part reinvention of the two groups’ music. As it did in “Evolutionaries,” its tribute to David Bowie and Prince, the Shadowbox cast finds the commonality in the two bands and stitches it together.

The show is not a repackaging of the greatest hits for either band. It covers some of the classics (Van Halen’s “Running With The Devil” and Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”), some era definers (Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”), and hidden gems (Van Halen’s “Mean Streets”).

However, the show is notable for what it leaves out as well as what it leaves in. Missing from the show are Van Halen’s classics like their cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” “Dance The Night Away,” and “Jamie’s Crying.” Among the tunes omitted from the Aerosmith set list are “Janie’s Got A Gun,” “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” and “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing.”

The band of guitarists Hahn, Jack Walbridge, and Justin Doe, bassists Buzz Crisafulli and Andy Ankrom, keyboardists Robbie Nance, Hahn, Stephanie Shull and Noelle Anderson, drummer Brandon Smith and trumpeter Jamie Barrow have a sense of reverence to the two Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame entrants.

It speaks volumes about the talent of Eddie Van Halen when it takes three guitarists to try to recapture the late guitarist’s sound. Walbridge, who was clearly relishing in that challenge, found out how hard that can be during “Ice Cream Man.” While trying to reproduce the opening solo, Walbridge joked with the crowd by singing, “I thought I’d have more time to warm up.”

It is interesting how Shadowbox Live! makes each song their own. Male singers only handle the lead vocals on a handful of the show’s catalogue – Barrow singing lead on Aerosmith’s “Angel,” and “The Train Kept A Rollin” and Van Halen’s “Running With the Devil,” Braeden Tuttle fronting Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” and Van Halen’s “Jump” and Ankrom taking on Van Halen’s “Ice Cream Man.”

Most of the songs are performed seamlessly by  female performers, which gives them a different feel. Nyla Nyamweya adds some fierceness to Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator” and a soulful growl to “Back in the Saddle.” Anderson brings powerhouse vocals to Aerosmith’s “Ragdoll” and Van Halen’s “Right Now.” Stacie Boord’s delivery of the anthemic “Dream On” is one of the show’s highlights.

Not all of it works. Van Halen and Aerosmith were both known for slipping in sexual innuendo into their lyrics and on-stage banter as tightly as they slid into their spandex pants. Seeing women articulate Roth’s on-stage patter feels… well, awkward.

Why is it acceptable when Roth says, “I reach down between my legs and ease the seat back” on “Panama” or “I brought my pencil … gimme something to write on” on “Hot for the Teacher”? Yet when Amy Lay and Brood deliver the exact same lines respectively, it’s uncomfortable.

While scantily clad women dancing in the background of 1980s hair band videos was commonplace, Psenicka’s flips the script on Aerosmith’s “Same Old Song and Dance.” During that song, the choreography features male backup dancers in prison garb while Klein handles the vocals. Psenicka also artfully incorporates aerial gymnastics of Lay and Riley Mak performing on the Lyra Hoop.

When it is at its best, Rock This Way is not just a cruise ship karaoke offering of the two rock bands; it’s a history lesson. Video designer David Whitehouse and Klein weave the story of the two bands together with snippets of MTV videos, concert performances, and appearances on the talk show circuit. The show comes replete with clips of David Lettermen, Dan Rather and Howard Stern interviewing Roth and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, arguably two of the most engaging front men of hard rock.

Some of the stories are hilarious. In one video, Hamilton talks about getting tired of fans requesting picks from him (he doesn’t use them), so he made plastic representations of his fingers to throw into the crowd. It did not go well.

Yet other segments seem to defy the bands’ carefully crafted, “Devil may care” attitude. In one poignant interview, Roth talks about the influence of his vocal coach Curt Blumenthal, a Holocaust survivor. “He had two tattoos – one was his camp number and the other was his orchestra number,” Roth said. “He told me, ‘Singing kept me alive (in the Nazi prison camp). I’d sing like my life depended on it.’ Every time I sing, I try to sing as if my life depended on it.”

If SHADOWBOX continues to produce shows like it is essential for their survival, the theater troupe’s genre of “rockumentaries” will be around for a long time to come.

PHOTO CREDIT: Terry Gilliam

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