Joe Perry Live at HOB Hollywood Instant Review

1) where's the list?
2) you are probably the only person in history to reference Joe Perry and the Mooney Suzuki on the same page. that is not a bad thing.

My buddy got two free tickets to see Joe Perry at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip so I was more than happy to do the driving.

Note to HOB: get your sh*t together in the parking lot. You would think you would have getting cars parked in a timely manner down by now.

Notes to the opening act:
1) put your fricking name on the bass drum. I still have no idea what the name of your band is which is too bad because you were pretty good.

2) Buy the bass player some new clothes. His duds were like goth Miami Vice. Not happenin'.

3) Lose that guitar player on stage right. Not only is he superfluous to your sound, he is damn awkward looking. No stage presence whatsoever. He looks like Liev Schrieber's loser brother.

4) You probably need the organ player so you don't sound exactly like The Mooney Suzuki, but stick the sexy back-up singers in front of him. He's almost as awkward looking as your second guitarist.

5) lock your singer down to a contract because he's probably the only one with the talent to make it big.

Now to Joe Perry. What a delight to see such a rock legend up close. He had a crack band, most notably the rhythm section of long-time bassist, and Aerosmith stand in, Dave Hull, and J Geils drummer, Marty Richards. These guys were in the pocket all night long.

The real surprise, though was Joe's new vocalist, Hagen, who hails from Southern Germany. He was young, cute, had a strong but not overbearing stage presence and, most importantly, a set of pipes that allowed him to negotiate the generous selection of Aerosmith tunes in the set.

I must mention the two surprise highlights of the evening were guest appearances by Slash with both bands. Slash closed out the set of the still to be identified opening act with a smoking rendition of "Gimme Shelter". Unfortunately his guitar was not amplified properly and produced a thin sound.

This was rectified however by the time Slash joined Joe Perry on his second number "Walkin' the Dog", a 'smith song Slash used to play with Guns And Roses. Slash and Joe traded some jaw-dropping solos near the end of the number.

On the whole Joe and his band put on a great show. The new songs from Joe's latest album, "Have Guitar Will Travel", sounded so good I parted with ten bucks to get a copy at the merch table.

I do have one stage note for Joe. You are a Les Paul guy. What is with all the Stratocasters all of a sudden? You don't sound the same on a Strat. And by God please retire that lefty Strat with the Telecaster neck. It was out of tune all night and it wasn't your tech's fault. That guitar needs to go.