TAB is out to make a name for itself
AUSTIN, Texas - On this sweltering afternoon upstairs at Maggie Mae's nightclub, the crowd is fuller than it was for the gig that TAB the Band played the previous night in the venue's downstairs room. On the first night of the South by Southwest music fest, about 20 people wandered in to check out the Boston trio's set at 1 in the morning.
This afternoon, more than three times that number have flocked to a party thrown by Gibson guitar company. Many are presumably here to check out the day's big-name attraction, electronica star Moby's new rock band called The Little Death NYC.
Most people are unaware that two-thirds of the band onstage are the children of a rock 'n' roll legend. But all appear to be grooving to TAB's retro mélange of hard rock and power pop, much of it drawn from its solid, independently released debut, "Pulling Out Just Enough to Win."
When informed that bassist-vocalist Adrian Perry and guitarist Tony Perry are the sons of Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, one young woman sitting at a table near the back simply says, "Really? Cool," and continues to bop to the beat held down by Ben Tileston.
That reaction is exactly what the band hopes for.
"We're not hiding from it, because it's our heritage, but we're also not trying to flaunt it," says Tony.
And that in a nutshell is the line that must be toed by the progeny of the famous who want to be taken seriously. For now, it looks like TAB - whose name is derived from the members' initials - is staying on the right side of that line.
"[At] our second show, Columbia Records said we want to sign you, and we said, 'No, we want to build it from the ground up,' " says Tony before the gig, as the guys huddle to chat during Little Death's sound check. They have no personal beef with the fast-tracking rise of, say, a Kelly Osbourne; it's just that they believe "to build a good rock band, you have to move your own [stuff] and play to no one, which we do all the time," he says.
"If they really wanted to take that route of 'this is who we are' [and capitalize on their last name], they'd have Aerosmith's booking agent booking them," says Randi Millman of T.T. the Bear's Place. She has booked TAB several times at the Cambridge club because they draw well and she likes their music. "I think they're good songwriters, and if they're this good now, I think there's a lot of time for growth and progression."
So the trio does what most college bands without famous parents do: schlep their own gear, manage their own booking and promotion, and try to work their way up in the local club system. (They're not stupid, though. They didn't turn down one family perk: dad's tour bus.)
Tony, 21, and Tileston, 20, attend BU, for which they'll play a benefit Monday at Metcalf Hall, and Adrian is in his last year of law school at Georgetown.
Raised on opposite coasts - Adrian, 26, grew up in California with Perry's first wife, while Tony lives in Duxbury with his parents - the boys came to music about the same time in their lives, around seventh grade. They would play together during school vacations Adrian spent in Massachusetts. After flirting with a novelty rap act, for which they recruited Tony's friend Tileston, the trio got serious in late 2006, writing the songs for "Pulling," says Tileston, "in a matter of days."
Thanks to production skills Tony picked up lurking around his dad's professional basement studio, they recorded it just as quickly - and have a second album almost completed. Because they are separated geographically, the trio writes most songs via e-mail, but the core goal is never lost in cyberspace.
"We just wanted to make a rock record," says Tony. "And we wanted the songs to be short and to the point," says Adrian. "That was the only mission statement we had."
With its spare production, brawny riffage, and collision of classic influences like the Beatles, Stones, Cheap Trick, and Led Zeppelin, that mission was accomplished. Reviews have name-checked everyone from Oasis to Fugazi, but very rarely Aerosmith, which is fine by TAB.
"People like relating things to what they know, so if anyone comes to our record and relates it to something they like, then we win," says Tony.
One person who could relate was Mark Wike, music supervisor for the FX series "The Riches," who used the song "Paid for By" in a recent episode.
"The vibe that we're going for is a reckless rock with a bit of retro flair," says Wike, describing TAB to a T. It wasn't until after he had picked the tune that he discovered the Aerosmith connection.
"I've heard some of the other songs, and I'm impressed," says Wike, who coincidentally played in the Boston band the Bogmen in the '90s. "The pressure's on for sons and daughters of musicians. Those are hard shoes to fill, and those guys have a cool vibe."
