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Blues implosions
Joe Perry at Harpers; Jon Langford at the Paradise
BY MATT ASHARE
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There was a time about a decade ago when you could get turned away from Harpers Ferry for wearing a shirt sans collar. Although a sign right inside the door still reads, "No tank tops/No club colors/Neat & clean appearance," the dress code has relaxed a bit since then. All the same, it wasn’t easy getting into the club two Mondays ago for Joe Perry’s semi-secret, sold-out gig to celebrate the release of his homonymous solo disc. Lately, Harpers has been mixing up its roots-rock and jam-band bookings with some neighborhood rock — Converge, of all people, were there a few weeks back — but Perry’s the biggest name to grace the room in some time. How’d Harpers get the booking? "Because this is the best rock room in the city," said the club’s owner, Edward Connelly, a retired teacher. It may not be the best, but it was more than adequate for the occasion: the room has a kicking PA, even if Perry and his entourage had to use a bus parked out back as their dressing room. The last time Perry put together his own band, it was 1980, bad hair was in, Charlie Farren was the singer, and the then-exiled Aerosmith guitarist let the music do the talking. This time around, Perry is handling vocals himself and, well, let’s just say Steven Tyler isn’t worried about losing his job in Aerosmith. Whenever Perry grabbed his guitar, though, the band sounded great. And Tyler did join the Perry foursome on harmonica for a nice bluesy jam. Despite rumors that the rest of Aerosmith were waiting backstage — and a Peter Wolf spotting — that was the night’s only cameo. Indeed, Perry didn’t play a single ’smith tune or even the Project’s only real hit, "Let the Music Do the Talking." Perry’s muse has always been the blues. But it took Mekons frontman Jon Langford a decade or more of playing punk rock before he relocated from London to Chicago and found himself with a bad case of the Americanas. These days, Langford fronts the countrified Waco Brothers — and even the Mekons have their twangy moments. But Langford’s Americana fetish goes deeper: he’s also made a name for himself as a visual artist whose portraits of C&W icons like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Bob Wills, and Patsy Cline have the weathered look of what hifalutin critics like to call "outsider art." That’s what brought him to the Paradise Lounge last Thursday: it was the opening reception for his show "Honky Tonks, Dreams and the National Nightmare." Three of the best paintings were hanging on stage, behind a wall of amps and drums, and another wall of smaller works was blocked by tables full of dining patrons. The local roots outfit the Tarbox Ramblers took care of that when they hit the stage around 7, driving away anyone who hadn’t come for the show. That also left the room less than half full by the time Langford took the stage. His art, though, will be hanging through June 7. And everything that doesn’t have a "sold" sticker on it is still for sale. Contact Matt Ashare at squadcar@earthlink.net
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