In December 1994, the band opened up a music club called the Mama Kin Music Hall in their hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Co-owned with The Lyon’s group, the club was on Lansdown Street (where you would find Jillian’s, Mama Kin’s, Avalon, and other clubs and bars).
When the club first opened, Aerosmith was all over the news speaking on how they wanted to have unsigned bands play there, have the option for the band to get a copy of the performance (tape or video), so the band would have something to present to record labels. Basically, a chance they did not have when they started out.
Aerosmith and the band members as guests made a few appearances to play in the club:
12/16/1994 – Crazy Ray Tabano + Steven Tyler
- I Ain’t Got You
- Milk Cow Blues
- Not sure what the 3rd song on the video is?
12/19/1994 – Aerosmith (final date of the Get a Grip tour)
The first time the band played the club was on December 19th, 1994. This infamous Aerosmith concert, which was the last at the end of their 18-month GAG tour, saw the band going back to their roots playing mainly 1970s material with only a couple of tracks from their recent Geffen days. Several audio bootlegs circulate created from an FM Radio broadcast of the soundboard.
The old aerosmith.com had some video clips from this show and the full video of the show was shown to some AF1 members at a convention back in 1995 or 1996.
That night Setlist was:
- Train kept a rollin’
- Same old song and dance
- Big ten-inch record
- Walk on water
- Walkin’ the dog
- Chip away the stone
- Last child
- Rattlesnake shake
- One way street
- Stop messin’ around
- Let the music do the talking
- Walk this way
- Cryin’
- Mama kin
- Milk cow blues
- I’m not talking
- Toys in the attic
Aerosmith donated the proceeds from their Ma Kin gig to the city, and Mayor Menino was at the press conference to receive a $10,000 check on behalf of Boston’s homeless. Tom Hamilton offered this to the officials: “We want to thank Mayor Menino and all the boys and girls in Boston government who are going to help us keep our clubs open later in Boston.”
05/24/1995 – MTV
MTV taping for a news segment about the new Club. Aerosmith gave Mtv’s cameras a special private tour. Steven spray-painted ‘Squat This Way’ on the mirror and Joe did his trademark AeroWings.
Part of the segment was later also added to their MTV Rockumentary (minute 27).
10/11/1995 – Secret performance as “Rayco and the Seat-covers”
They played there again on November 10th, 1995. They were unannounced/surprise gigs – although the rumours were flying weeks before. They wanted to play a gig at a club as hadn’t played for a year (since MK Dec 94) and they included some new material as well as it was more your classic 70s set (like their Boston Club data to celebrate Aerosmith 10 in 1980).
That night’s set was:
- Make It
- Bone To Bone
- Get The Lead Out
- Trouble
- Remember (Walking In The Sand)
- I’m A Man
- Reefer Head Woman
- Sick As A Dog
- Something (Joe Perry tune)
- Last Child
- The Farm
- S.O.S. (Too Bad)
- What Kind of Love Are You On
- Milk Cow Blues
- Mama Kin
- Think About It
- Immigrant Song
These 1995 club shows (the Middle East and Mama Kin) are the rarest and most wanted show in the Aerosmith world as they played some outtakes. There are no bootlegs from this show due to the strict security, they used metal detector wands on entry to the gigs with the sole purpose of detecting video and recording equipment.
An official staff member from the band confirmed that there were no official recordings done, only the Mama Kin show was recorded with the in-house camera, but it’s locked in their vault. The band don’t lend out recordings to anyone unless you are a very close friend or a celeb and only under the proviso that it’s for their own eyes. Club owners certainly wouldn’t get copies. Usually, with any concert, the venue is asked to sign things to say they won’t do any private videoing/recording either without permission. It’s locked down real tight.
05/22/1996 – An article on the Boston Globe:
12/16/1995 – Brad Jammin’
Later on, it was Brad that joined “GOVN’T MULE” for a song live at Mama Kin’s, the blues tune “Born Under A Bad Sign”.
1998 – MTV Fanatic
01/10/1998 – Book signing
The band had a book signing of their “Walk This Way” autobiography, it was taped.
This was passed out to the THOUSANDS of fans standing in line for the “Walk This Way” book signing at Mama Kin’s. I liked the ‘FOLLOW YOUR BOOK’ line. If you followed your book, you would not have seen them. They RUSHED everyone through so fast that the 10 hours in line was to only stare at them for about 3.3 seconds. And that was to look at the WHOLE band. If you blinked, you missed it.
Few shots from inside Mama Kin Music Hall. The signing was held upstairs, above the club.
01/16/1998
This was the last time they played there, January 16, 1998. It was a small set, they played that gig to help promote “NEMO”.
- Make It
- Walkin’ The Dog
- Pink
- Stop Messin’ Around
- Chip Away The Stone
- Draw The Line
- Rats In The Cellar
It was covered by a local Boston tv station “WAAF”, and showed some clips as a news update, etc; it was later broadcasted in a show called “Real Rock TV”; it’s the 7 song set mixed with an interview and footage of the book signing days before.
AEROSMITH GETS IMPROVED NEMO OFF TO ROUSING START
Author: By Steve Morse, Globe Staff
Date: 01/17/1998 Page: C8
Section: Arts and Film
Despite bone-chilling temperatures, the NEMO music conference and showcase got off to a flying start yesterday, peaking with a sensational set by Aerosmith at home club Mama Kin. NEMO is only in its second year, but the quality of the seminars held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza — and the band showcases held at 22 clubs around the city — reflected a major leap from last year.
NEMO is designed to help new, unsigned bands find their way through the music industry, but adding support this year was mega-giant Aerosmith, which rattled Mama Kin in a special 40-minute, take-no-prisoners set that was a metallic valentine for the true Aerosmith fan.
Unlike Aerosmith’s recent FleetCenter shows, where more recent hits dominated the song list, last night’s gig was a plunge into the ’70s for vintage tracks that haven’t been heard in a while. Only one tune, “Pink,” was current, while the rest were laden with history, starting with the crunching “Make It,” from the band’s first album.
As Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and the boys got looser by the minute, they roared into the acid-swamp boogie of Memphis classic “Walking the Dog,” the even heavier boogie of “Stop Messin’ Around” (with Perry taking a vocal turn and wailing like Howlin’ Wolf), the searing “Draw the Line,” the ancient “Chip Away the Stone,” and the climactic “Rats in the Cellar.” On this, Brad Whitford stepped up with a molten guitar lead and the band jammed with a ferocity that left the elbow-to-elbow crowd in a state of total ecstasy.
Tyler, who even looked like his old self with dark hair (having replaced the reddish-blond streaks of the recent past), sang like a man possessed and took some harmonica leads reminiscent of the dear, departed Junior Wells. Tyler even thanked WBCN for broadcasting the show, as if this were the old days, though of course, the “new” ‘BCN had no part of it. (WAAF took advantage of its new Aerosmith alliance by passing out ‘AAF stickers on the street.)
01/05/1999 – Club closure
This is an article the Boston Globe ran, on Jan 5,1999, on the closing of Ma Kin:
And this is an un-dated pic (looks like 1997/1998) of Steven and a transsexual called Musty? at Mama Kin’s on Christmas:
The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos 
