Charismatic singer- guitarist duo Steven Tyler, right, and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.

AP / Jeff Roberson

MANSFIELD, MASS. — More than 40 years ago, Pete Townshend wrote “Hope I die before I get old.” More than 30 years ago, Steven Tyler wrote “All these lines in my face getting clearer.” Probably, neither one thought much about what the lyric would mean this far down the road, but, well, here we all are.

Tuesday night at the Comcast Center, Aerosmith didn’t have guitarist Brad Whitford, who is recovering from surgery (replaced by Bobby Schneck); their hired keyboard player, in the back of the stage, did the lion’s share of the backup vocals and played some guitar; heck, even the gong at the end of “Dream On” was canned. Tyler, while still in fine voice, looked every one of his 61 years and prowled the stage more slowly than in years past. And man oh man do they need a new album — eight years and counting since Just Push Play.

All that said, they’ve still got some of the most tuneful hard rock of the ’70s and ’80s, one of rock’s most charismatic singer-guitarist duos in Tyler and Joe Perry, a secret weapon in grooving, pounding bass player Tom Hamilton, and enough of a back catalog that they can put on a fairly new show even when albums are long in the making.

After this many years, I don’t know whether the Boston rock gods are capable of a true surprise anymore, but they put as many curve balls as they could in the set list, starting with a strong “Train Kept A-Rollin’ ” that started pedal-to-the-metal, rather than with the half-time of the long-ago recorded version. Then came relatively rote versions of the hits “Cryin’ ” and “Love in an Elevator” before they whanged into “Jaded,” their strongest single in years. “Dream On” was next, which was uncommonly early in the set for the national anthem of Aerosmith.

The ballyhooed front-to-back performance of their classic 1975 album Toys in the Attic went fairly well, although they left off the closer, “You See Me Crying”; three out of the nine songs on it are Aerosmith concert staples anyway (“Walk This Way,” “Big Ten Inch Record,” “Sweet Emotion”); and two others (“Toys in the Attic,” “No More No More”) have been frequent set-list guests.

That left “Uncle Salty,” reminding all that the band may not usually play straight blues, but it’s in their DNA; the T. Rex-style “Adam’s Apple” and the slow pounder “Round and Round” for the you-had-to-be-there moments. Other rarities included their closing cover of “Come Together” from the infamous Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band movie and the Perry-sung “Combination,” which closed with a strong guitar solo.

It got sad in the middle of “Living on the Edge,” when Perry faced off against his Guitar Hero self, clearly a nod to the video game’s sponsorship of the tour. Well, at least the real Perry “won.”

But you could forgive it all when they slammed into the deathless “Draw the Line,” with a long, dizzying slide-guitar solo from Perry, as well as a coda where drummer Joey Kramer batted at the guitar with his sticks (Perry’s solo during “Sweet Emotion,” playing guitar with one hand and theremin with the other, was another visual highlight).

Fellow Bostonians The Dropkick Murphys explore the commonalities between the bagpipes and the Les Paul, the jig and the shuffle, the rock ’n’ roll attitude and the Irish attitude. And in preceding Aerosmith, they did all that and tore the roof off at the same time.

They opened with “Famous for Nothing,” with pipes and banjo joining in a hardcore-punk feel, and continued that way throughout their one-hour set. Even when the song was pure four-on-the-floor rock, such as on “Walk Away” and “Flannigan’s Ball,” or pure hardcore, as on “Citizen C.I.A.,” the voices of singer Al Barr and bassist-singer Ken Casey gave the requisite Pogues-like, rabble-rousing sneer.

Of course, they ran through the Red Sox tough-guy anthem “Tessie,” and they got political during the war ballad “Faraway Coast” and the angry “Worker’s Song” (“We’re the first ones to starve/ The first ones to die”), but they pulled out all the stops near the end, in quick succession bringing a troupe of young Irish step dancers on stage for “Captain Kelly’s Kitchen”; venturing deep into the audience for the staggering alcohol ballad whose name can’t be printed here; tearing through a spot-on “Baba O’Riley” (with bouzouki taking over the sequencer part), and bringing out the Boston College marching band to lay down the heavy metal on “Shipping Up to Boston.”

It was dazzling, angry and energetic. About three-quarters of the Aerosmith fans didn’t know what to make of it; the rest loved it.

It was only natural for the Dropkicks to join Aerosmith for an encore of “Dirty Water” (which was sloppy and besieged by microphone problems).

Aerosmith will play the Mohegan Sun arena Sunday, June 28, at 7:30 p.m., but without the Dropkick Murphys. ZZ Top is the special guest. Tickets are still available, $175 and $125.

rmassimo@projo.com