News From The Road

Hey folks back again. Phase one of the bury the hatchet  tour is in the books. It may have been one of the best tours in recent memory. Bogota and Sao Paulo stand out as stand outs but more on that later.

Santiago Chile was in fact Chilly. It was so cold I saw a chicken with a capon. No, seriously folks by the 2nd song it was so cold and rainy out there but not one person left Simon Bolivar Park. Simon Bolivar must have been spinning in his grave so much that he caused a near hurricane. Aerosmith hasn’t been to Santiago since 1994 and the sell out crowd of 38,000 people let them hear how sorely they have been missed.

Down Pour in Chile.  John B. Finds Appropriate Headgear	Bionelli, Perry and Eyers = Motley Crew

Next stop was Porto Alegre another city that experienced Aerosmith’s defloration. That makes Caracas, Lima and Porto Alegre as cities that have now been infected with a serious dose of Boston rock! Porto Alegre was a nice enough city but reminded me of being in Allston Mass with 5 rivers running through it. These gaucho’s love their music and showed mucho appreciation.

Sao Paulo got the best show in my book. Everything just clicked. That one goes in the time machine. Tyler and Perry were on fire. Brad was playing like he always does, fn’ awesome and Hamilton and Kramer kept the groove rock solid the whole night. Before the show Steven usually asks a translator to help him with some diction and on this night you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the Portuguese speaking crowd wanted to here the “old bosta.” So the old bosta they got. Kings and Queens made a rare appearance. Joey had a huge hand in getting it in the set and the few times they played it in rehearsal really paid off. The Krame-Dog ended the song before it veered off the tracks like a Amtrak Northeast Regional from DC to the Big Apple.

Sao Paulo - 05.29.10

On the 7 hour plane ride from Sao Paulo to Costa Rica the boys pretty much read every People, Star, Time, Newsweek and Maxim magazine on the plane cover to cover. The topic of conversation ranged from “how the hell are they gonna plug that thing up?” to “how could that tattooed thug do that to poor Sandy?” Just then Tom pulled out his iPhone and asked me if I had ever seen this app called Aerosmith trivia? I hadn’t and he then started up a friendly game. I was doing pretty good until the lyric portion of the game came up. There were all these questions about lyrics to unreleased songs and you had to match the lyrics with what song it went to. If Tom didn’t know he would ask Steven which I thought was cheating. Here I am playing an Aerosmith trivia game with 2 and sometimes more members of Aerosmith. Needless to say the game was under protest and we switched to a more level playing field “The 3 Stooges trivia game.”

Costa Rica - Just like Maui? Not quite but it would be a great place to spend a few extra days after the tour ended and the Demon did just that before heading to the UK to get ready for the first show of the European leg (phase 2) of the tour, which kicks off in Sweden June 10th.  The crew spent most of the time there jacked on coffee. You couldn’t find a Dunkin’ Donuts there if you tried. Why would you want to when you had the finest tasting java this side of Ethiopia. Weird thing happened at dinner the night before the show. We were sitting outside at the Hotel restaurant when the table started shaking. I said what the hell was that? “Did you feel that,” I yelled. Tom and Steven looked at me like I had 2 heads. Just then the promoter comes over and says that was a 6.1 boys. For a second I thought it could have been Joe jamming in his room but I got a text from him seconds later that read “WTF?”.  At that time Brad said “that’s nothing wait until the curtain falls tomorrow night.”

Just heard that the master of the Narcissistic Nikon, Ross Halfin, will be shooting both UK shows. He is probably starching his too short black shorts and working on his tan as we speak. It’s always good to see the world’s tallest midget and I look forward to some friendly banter with my old china.

Employee of the Week:

Goes to John Shipp. John helps me in IT world and always has my side of the stage up and running in perfect order. He resides in Boston and has been affiliated with the band for close to 10 years now. When not on the road with Aerosmith, Joe Perry Project or ELO he can be found at Pandora’s Box Studio keeping it in tip top shape. John’s blood type is caffeine and has been known to smoke a pack of coffin nails while waiting for the Dunkin’ Donuts doors to open in the morning. Hats off to Sir Shippington. Another important cog in the Aero machine.

John Leo Shipp "Ready and Available"	John Leo Shipp

See you on the Road!

Johnny B.