There are few things that might be considered more awkward or, perhaps, entertaining than the visual of being in the pit at a rock concert, sweating and singing at the top of your lungs, and then seeing your parents alongside you doing the same thing. Enter Aerosmith.

For decades, this quintet has crushed the album charts with its music and has plunged into endless tours without coming up very long for air before doing it all again.

Starting in 1964, Aerosmith has grown to worldwide fame and has placed itself among the few longevity bands of our time.

Unfortunately, because of possible vocal problems with frontman Steven Tyler, the Bostonian quintet will not perform its scheduled concert Thursday.

This marks the ninth consecutive show date on its “Rockin’ The Joint” tour that the band has had to cancel because of Tyler’s vocal chords. Despite these cancellations, Aerosmith retains a large following.

Benny Black, radio disc jockey for Lazer 103.3 FM, said the station still plays Aerosmith frequently in its line up, and many of its listeners and other DJ’s are big fans of the band.

“Aerosmith is that creepy – but still cool – grandfather that will give you beers when your parents aren’t watching,” Black said.

David Stuart, professor of music and instructor of Music 304: “History of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, said that this is because the fact that if the quality of music is good enough, it can bring on new fans as time goes on.

“It’s hard to survive if your stuff isn’t good,” Stuart said.

“There’s really not a whole lot of groups that you can say that about.”

This is especially true for an industry that focuses heavily on a “what have you done for me lately” basis. For Aerosmith, this has never been much of a problem.

Even after the band experienced a breakup after knocking out two platinum albums in the immediate years prior to the split, it soon after showed that it was back stronger than ever, with albums such as “Done With Mirrors,” “Permanent Vacation” and “Pump.”

“We paved the road, so to speak, so why not f—king get in our cars and drive it down again?” said Tyler in an interview on www.aerosmith.com.

Fans were still eager for the Aerosmith’s music despite the breakup and turmoil. The band capitalized on this with its renowned collaboration with rap group Run-DMC on a remix of the Aerosmith song, “Walk This Way.”

The band would later go on and keep hitting the sweet spots of current pop culture with several motion picture soundtrack releases such as “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” from “Mrs. Doubtfire” and the infamous “Armageddon” ballad, “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing.”

Some later releases continued to make their mark in the popular music realm, which include such albums as “Just Push Play” and “Honkin’ On Bobo.” The band has even made television and movie appearances, including one on the famed Disney show, “Lizzie Maguire.”

This seems to be how many bands have kept themselves in the limelight for so many years.

Whether it’s Bono and U2’s worldwide philanthropic efforts, or the Rolling Stones doing the same exact thing it’s done since the beginning of the band, finding the insights to what their fans want is what keeps these groups around for so long.

Justin Jacobsen, instrumentalist for the local band Halfway House, said that it’s important for bands to stay relevant to the trends if they want to stick around.

“Most of the bands that have been around for a long time, there’s something really unique about them. But with Aerosmith – there’s a lot of bands that sound like Aerosmith – but Aerosmith is better at what they do than them and I think that’s why they stay around,” Jacobsen said.

“Rockin’ The Joint” is Aerosmith’s 25th full-length album. The band is currently on tour supporting the live album, which was recorded during a performance at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.

At press time, Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines declined to acknowledge whether the show was officially canceled, however, according to Aerosmith’s tour management, the show will not take place.

This is the first time that Aerosmith has had to cancel several consecutive shows because of injuries in several years. A knee injury sustained by Tyler and second degree burns suffered by drummer Joey Kramer caused the band to postpone 51 shows across two tours in 1998.

The next scheduled tour date is March 25 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, N.D. Other midwestern stops for the band include a March 27 Peoria, Ill. show and a March 29 Oklahoma City show.