Close Enemies: City Winery, Boston MA 10 Jan 2025
Close Enemies, a new Rock band featuring Aerosmith’s Tom Hamilton was introduced to the masses Dec 2024 shortly after their debut show in Nashville a few months prior. Showcased by the marquee name in the headline, make no mistake that this is NO supergroup, but instead a blue-collar working man’s band built from the ground up. To be more specific, this is NOT Tom Hamilton’s Band, & on the contrary he was only asked to come onboard after the genesis of the Band was already built by longtime Aerosmith Guitar Tech for Joe Perry Trace Foster.
The unit, also featuring veteran Sheryl Crow Guitarist Peter Stroud, seasoned Drummer Tony Brock (The Babys & Rod Stewart) & the multi-talented Singer/ Songwriter Chasen Hampton on Vocals, headed out for an early January showcase tour in the Northeast as to get the word out on this new & exciting powerhouse unit. With the bold move of playing to audiences without any new music released to the public, this was a risky proposition to feature TEN never heard before songs, but I give the guys credit for having the confidence to deliver the music & stand behind their material.
As both Tom Hamilton & Chasen Hampton have roots in the Boston region, this felt like a homecoming show of sorts, especially knowing many in the audience were in attendance simply because of the ties back to the mighty Aerosmith. Case in point, pre-show I chatted with uber-fan, archivist & all around “Aerosmithsonian” Jonathan Robinson who was displaying his massive personally designed Aerosmith family tree poster, complete with the latest entry Close Enemies in tow. Come to find out he has also run several Aerosmith History Days events for their diehard fan base over the years with more to come, AND he even had Joe Perry’s Sister Annie in the car with him on their drive back home.
Onto the show itself. One hour & fifteen minutes – ten Close Enemies newly penned songs, three cover songs. The show opened with two FM Rock style radio songs, “Rain” & “Inside Out”, both containing an abundance of catchy & melodic harmonies in the vocals. In contrast “Sweet Baby Jesus” was a tad bluesy containing slide guitar, plus a splash of Country swagger in Chasen’s singing, & “More Than I Could Ever Need” performed later in the set, a dark & moody song with a Country twang to it.
Before introducing the first single, “Sound Of A Train” (17 Jan release), a harder Rock & riff heavy song, Chasen opened up this being a song with special meaning to it & one dedicated to his now late Father. As he explained it, on his deathbed his Dad was able to hear it before his passing, certainly a touching moment in his life. Staying in the heavier realm, “Wink & A Feather” has all the makings of a 70s era rocker very reminiscent of vintage Bad Company or Foghat & the same can be said for the main guitar riff on “Dry Rocket”. A variety of styles ensued on several other new tracks that followed, however it was the two Aerosmith songs played during the encore that got the fans up off of their asses at the seated dinner type setting – the somewhat surprising deep track “Sick As A Dog” & the legendary Classic Rock “Sweet Emotion”, of course showcasing the famous Bass work of Mr. Hamilton at his finest.
Post-show, the Band made an impromptu last-minute appearance in the lobby to greet fans at the makeshift merchandise table. In a busy & rather frantic setting, the Band was pulled out of there in what seemed to be less than 30 minutes, leaving some fans, me included, out in the cold. And despite a last-ditch effort, along with my new friend Jonathan, to push our way behind the now closed doors to the back area, we were able to get a very VERY brief exchange with Tom before band security so RUDELY stuck his hand in front of my phone as to block the photo. Sparing the obscenities, I will clarify that this was most certainly NOT Tom’s intentions as he quietly encouraged me in his post-Cancer affected voice to “hurry up with the picture”. But alas because of the beauty of technology, I was able to edit the live photo & chose one of the frames without the obstructed view to salvage just one more of my many great Rock & Metal memories.
Metal Walt
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