Aerosmith may have seemed like an unlikely choice to play in a pregame concert a day before the Ncaa Championship Game on Sunday night, but they showed up. So did Macklemore, which was confusing for many people. It was the mashup sports fans didn't know they needed, and musical fans almost certainly didn't want in their lifetimes.
The bizarre performance
Aerosmith was slated to play the March Madness Music Festival in downtown Phoenix on Sunday night, a free concert for those in town to watch the Final Four and NCAA Championship Game. Things started off well enough, with the band performing some of their classics and a lot of songs that became popular during the height of MTV's popularity.
Then, the band randomly decided to bring out Seattle rapper Macklemore for a rendition of "Walk This Way," which drew universal disgust on social media.
Macklemore went on to perform a few of his bigger songs, from social commentary pieces like "Same Love" to the ever popular "Thrift Shop" and "And We Danced." Aerosmith finished out their set with an encore that included Steven Tyler banging out some songs on the piano and a classic rendition of "Dream On," despite Tyler joking that nobody wanted to hear it. Blink-182 and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats also performed during the NCAA Championship Game buildup.
Staying relevant to the end
Sunday night's Aerosmith performance continues the band's trend of trying to appeal to an ageless audience by doing bizarre things or having strange performances.
The band appears during Super Bowl commercials, does mashups with all sorts of artists during live performances, and even had their lead singer serve as a judge on American Idol.
The NCAA Championship Game Festival was their first live performance of 2017, though, and rumors are rampant that Aerosmith may be ready to call it quits from live performances shortly. If they do so, they appear to be determined to go out with a bang, corralling audiences to "Dream On" until the end of the road.
