Aero Force One
March 20, 2008
Soon You’ll Be Back on Your Feet, Like You Didn’t Miss a Beat!
It’s no secret some of the guys had or are having some work done to their dodgy pins. Yes folks that’s cockney for legs. Steven has had both feet repaired from his well documented motorbike accident in the early 80’s. His feet have been bothering him on and off for the last 20 something years. Imagine this guy when he is back to running on all cylinders? Scary! Joe on the other hand has had knee pain since 2002. The same knee he had previously repaired started to give him some serious pain last summer. He would immediately put ice on it after the shows and on the off days to keep the swelling down. It seemed to be getting better after the tour but just after 2 shows with Tab the Band the pain became unbearable and it was back to the doctors to see what could be done. The answer is “surgery.” We will keep you posted on what kind of surgery…
Before Joe’s incident at Wounded Knee he performed 3 shows with his sons Adrian and Tony. As you know their band is called “Tab the Band” and they have been playing up and down the east coast this past year. After the guys played at The Annex in NYC last October (for a Guitar Hero Party) Joe decided it would be cool to keep up his chops and play with his sons. Foxwoods was suppose to be the only show but “Five Oh Dollar” Don Bernstine (from Hard Rock) asked Joe if he would be interested in playing the Boston and New York Hard Rock’s before the Tab boys head out on a mainly Hard Rock tour of the USA. Joe agreed and was even going to play a show in Upstate NY with a “new project” in April but the knee cancelled any chances of that.
The shows were great! They included everything you would want in a Joe Perry show. Old Aero stuff, new JP stuff, cover tunes and even a TAB song or two. “Combination” seemed to be the crowd favorite. Hopefully it will find a spot in the next Aerosmith tour. It was funny getting to see Joe and his sons arguing about the set list. They seemed to come to a compromise and as you can see the set lists were a little different from one show to the other. I enjoyed the TAB the Band songs. They sounded fresh and Joe brought a certain crunch to them. Joe has some Aero crew on hand to make him feel right at home. Joey came to the Boston show with his right hand man and one of Boston’s finest Donny Wightman. Donny goes by a different name on Ross Halfin’s site but this is a family column here. Joey seemed impressed with young Ben Tileston. Ben isn’t old enough to drink but he is old enough to bang the skins and that he did. Joe still hasn’t memorized young Ben’s last name and refers to him as “Ben my neighbor.” Brad came by the New York show with his kid’s in tow. Some of you may have seen Graham Whitford play “Last Child” with Aerosmith last summer and judging by this kids talent you may be seeing Whitford Squared in the near future. Cindy Blackmon the drummer from numerous Lenny Kravitz tours and Robin Quivers from the Howard Stern show came to the NY show also. They stayed all night and hung out with Joe and Billie before the show. Someone from the NY Post was there taking an arranged group shot by Don Bernstine and he seemed upset when I shoo’d him out of my picture ala Halfin. Joe had special T-Shirts made up for all the shows and should be available through the fan club in the near future.
Joe with Cindy Blackmon and Robin Quivers
Photo by John Bionelli
Joey has been a regular at the band’s studio in recent weeks. He keeps the rust off by simulating a 2 hour show pumped through his head phones. His encore includes some Tower of Power and James Brown tunes. Speaking of Joey, some of you may remember that back in 1997 Joey gave a set of brand new cymbals to Dropkick Murphys drummer Matt Kelly. DKM were just starting out and couldn’t afford cymbals for their first US tour. The co-founder of that group was Rick Barton who stayed with the Murphy’s until 1999. Fast forward to 2008 and Rick is at it again with a new band called “Everybody Out!” Rick has long since patched up his differences with the band and was asked to support the Murphy’s on their latest tour to support their new album. One problem! Their drummer’s cymbals were in shambles. Enter Joey to the rescue again giving young drummer Kevin Garvin a new set of Zildjian’s finest. Hopefully “Everybody Out!” will follow in the Dropkick Murphys footsteps and judging by the response I saw from the crowd at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell Mass last Saturday they are well on their way.
See you in the emergency room!
John O’BNLE