Aerosmith packed three decades of hard rock into a four-song performance when they visited 2 Meter Sessions at Amsterdam’s Paradiso on November 25, 1997.

Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford were in the middle of the ‘Nine Lives’ period, but the intimate television session reached all the way back to the band’s 1970s catalogue before landing firmly in the music they were making at the time.

They opened with “Rats in the Cellar,” the frantic ‘Rocks’ cut from 1976. The performance stretches past seven minutes before Aerosmith launches into “Love in an Elevator,” bringing one of the biggest songs from 1989’s ‘Pump’ into the much smaller Paradiso setting.

The second half belongs to ‘Nine Lives.’

“Taste of India” arrives next, giving the band room to lean into the song’s heavier textures before the session wraps with “Pink,” another track from the then-new album.

The performance captures Aerosmith in a setting far removed from the arenas and festival stages associated with the band. 2 Meter Sessions was built around getting artists into closer quarters, and the format puts Tyler’s vocals, Perry and Whitford’s guitars, Hamilton’s bass and Kramer’s drums right at the centre of the recording.

By 1997, 2 Meter Sessions had already spent a decade bringing musicians into its studios and performance spaces. The Dutch music program began in 1987 when radio presenter Jan Douwe Kroeske convinced Crowded House to play a few songs during his national radio show.

The response eventually helped turn 2 Meter Sessions into a regular platform, and it made the move to national television in 1993. Its archive would grow to include performances from Radiohead, Nirvana, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, James Taylor, Elliott Smith, David Crosby, Ben Howard and many others.

Aerosmith’s appearance offered something slightly different: a band formed in 1970 revisiting its past while still releasing new music that could comfortably sit beside it.

“Rats in the Cellar” and “Love in an Elevator” handle the history. “Taste of India” and “Pink” show exactly where Aerosmith stood in 1997.

Setlist:

“Rats in the Cellar”
“Love in an Elevator”
“Taste of India”
“Pink”