| The Joe Perry Project — Have Guitar, Will Travel |
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 Saturday, November 21, 2009Fantasy Springs Resort Casino Indio, California Story and photos by Elayna Freiberg Yes. It’s me, the “Beauty by Elayna” columnist covering a rock concert. Health and beauty are my genre, but I am a (not so) secret “rocker chick” who attends as many rock concerts as I can throughout the year. When I heard one of my favorite musicians, Joe Perry, was coming into town — I told my editor, “YES! I’ll go and write about it!”  The Joe Perry Project chose Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio near Palm Springs, Calif., as one of 20 American city stops before finishing out the tour in 2010, throughout Canada and Europe. The concert was in support of Joe’s fifth solo album, appropriately titled, “Have Guitar, Will Travel.” This tour was a first for his new lead singer of the band, only known as “Hagen.” Hagen hails from Germany and was found singing on a YouTube video by Joe’s wife Billie. He was called in to audition and immediately selected by Joe to sing for the band.The set was kicked off by Joe’s gyrating guitar instrumental titled “ Wooden Ships.” Some of his new songs included “Still Got a Long Way to Go.” "Freedom" and my new favorite song, “Scare the Cat.” This song was inspired (literally) by his cat sleeping on top of a speaker that started to freak out the second Joe plugged in his amplifier and started playing guitar. “Great inspiration for a song title,” Joe explained as he shared the experience with the audience. Another new addition was also drummer Ben Tileston. He currently has a Boston-based band titled TAB with two of Joe’s sons. His hard-hitting drum solo sounded like a musician who's been playing for years rather than a recent college graduate. Bassist David Hull has been playing live with most of Joe’s solo projects, since the 1980s. David has also played onstage with Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Ozzy Osborne, just to name a few Rock legends. It was together, that he and Joe started the riffs for the classic Aerosmith song, “Toys” from their “Toys in the Attic” album. After the 90 minute set, the stage grew dark, and the band members held up their arms”to say “farewell.” That was until the crowd started screaming, “Joe! Joe! Joe!" The smash Aerosmith song “Walk this Way” was the night's encore. This was a reminder to new and old Joe Perry fans, alike.  This man plays his guitar with the same passion now that he displayed the first time he started playing more than 30 years ago. This is why he is a guitar legend who sold more than 150-million albums worldwide and will go down in history inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.For more information on Joe Perry concerts, music biography, or to purchase products, click here. For more about entertainment at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, click here. | |||||||
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