Veteran rockers Aerosmith closed the 5 1/2 hour Boston Strong Concert. After running through hits like "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion," they were joined on stage by 1990s boy band New Kids on the Block and other performers for the Beatles classic.
"Boston got its heart broken ... but if they think they can keep us down, they can 'Dream On,'"said frontman Steven Tyler before Aerosmith played their hit by that name.
Bostonians jammed to songs from the Dropkick Murphys, Boston and other musical acts and even laughing at a joke about the capture of a bombing suspect.
Rock band Boston kicked off the concert with songs including its 1970s hit "More Than a Feeling."
"Tonight, we are all Boston," lead singer Tommy DeCarlo declared to a crowd of thousands of people, including victims and first responders, at the TD Garden.
As the members of NKOTB took the stage to perform, member Joey McIntyre, who had finished running in the marathon 10 minutes before the bombs went off, got emotional.
"I happened to be on a bench in Copley Plaza, Copley Square," McIntyre said, "but I don't care where you were that day, because this happened to all of us."
More than once during the concert, the words "Boston Strong" were met with cheers and fist pumps from the energetic crowd.
Boston residents were locked down, told to shelter in place, a few days after the bombing while authorities searched for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was found hiding in a boat in a backyard in suburban Watertown. Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had died after a shootout with police.
The suspects are accused of setting off two pressure cooker bombs packed with shrapnel near the marathon's finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others. Their mother has insisted they are innocent.
Concert proceeds went to One Fund Boston, the compensation fund established by Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas Menino to help bombing victims.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
