Every so often the e-mail correspondence between the Editorial Board and the contributors to Pencil Storm turns into a blog. This entry, concerning a cold winter’s night with The Joe Perry Project in 1979 - courtesy of Ricki C. - is one of those.
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 9:03 PM Jeremy Porter <> wrote:
Cool - I should be able to get all caught up tomorrow.
We're in Dayton on Thursday, middle-slot, if anyone's up for a hang!
On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 2:14 PM Colin Gawel <> wrote:
Man, I would love to make Dayton but going to my first escape room event. You see Joe Perry Project playing Pontiac Saturday night? The setlists have been great!
On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 2:48 PM Jeremy Porter <> wrote:
Yea I'd be going to that if we weren't on the road. Small room!
From: Ricki C. <>
To: Jeremy Porter <>; Colin Gawel <>
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2023 at 10:01:09 PM EDT
Subject: Re: this week's blogs
Gentlemen - This is very late, but apropos of The Joe Perry Project.......
I saw them the first time in winter 1979 (with Mach Bell of Thundertrain - a Boston band I LOVED from the "Live At The Rat” comp in 1976 to this day - on lead vocals).
I swear to God I think Joe got HALF of Aerosmith's arena-sized-PA in the "divorce" and used every decibel of it in the Columbus Agora (a 1000-capacity club) that night in '79. That band was FUCKING DEAFENING, and I don't mean in a good way. The bass & guitars were just a muddy blur, the vocals were unintelligible and you couldn't hear the drums AT ALL (and they were MIKED.)
My buddies & I left early because the mix was SUCH a botch-job we couldn't stand it; it was an unlistenable, undifferentiated ROAR.
It was spitting snow outside and when we were crossing High Street in front of the club on the way to the car (Colin will be able to appreciate this more than you, Jeremy, having attended concerts and played shows at The Newport, the re-named Agora Club) we had to stop on the center line of the street for cars to pass by in the snow and with the doors of the Agora closed behind us THE SOUND WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY BALANCED RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, OUTSIDE THE BUILDING.
I couldn't believe it. You could hear every little "nuance" of the tunes (it WAS The Joe Perry Project, after all, so nuance might not be the right word) from that rather perilous vantage point.
The four of us listened to two entire songs standing on that center line, and then had to move on from the cold & wet and cars breezing past us in poor visibility.
I can't imagine them in a small room in 2023.
On Tue, Apr 25, 2023 at 8:21 AM Jeremy Porter <> wrote:
Why isn't this a Pencil Storm article?
I have a killer bootleg of JPP from April 1980, Royal Oak MI.
Photos from the Pontiac, MI. show, 4/22/2023, courtesy of Shawn Lezotz.
Ricki C. turned 70 years old in the summer of 2022. He has been involved professionally in rock & roll in some capacity - performer, roadie, rock writer - since 1968 when he sang his first song for pay in public; “Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf at a classmate’s basement birthday party.