AEROSMITH Drummer Checks In From Hartford

AEROSMITH drummer Joey Kramer has posted the following message on the Aero Force One (AEROSMITH's official fan club) web site following the band's September 7 performance in Hartford, Connecticut:

"I thought that for the second show of the tour it was pretty damn good. There were a couple of little mistakes that went down, but overall I thought the band played well. Steven [Tyler] was in good voice. The beginning of the show when Joe [Perry] went flying down the ramp. Woah. I thought Steven did an excellent job on 'Seasons of Wither'; in fact, the audience was mesmerized. Looking out at 30,000 people back to the edges of the lawn Steven had the audience mesmerized during 'Seasons'. During what it takes, the whole audience was swaying from 1989 to 2006, again Steven was in great voice, he sang that song great tonight. 'Sweet E' with Joe with the laser light was like a wizard conjuring up the laser spirits. Brad [Whitford] was his usual bad self one of my favorite guitar players of all time. During 'Draw The Line'Joe Perry did everything on stage but pull furniture out of his ass. The boy is hot shit. If had got any hotter we would have had a real problem with the fire marshal. Missing Tom [Hamilton], but David Hull is doing us proud. And as we closed the show with 'Walk This Way', I was sorry to see it end. See you in Pittsburgh.

"That's my story, I'm sticking to it. What do you have to say??

"I disagree with anyone who is saying there are too many slow songs in the set. A great song is a great song. It's a very difficult thing to try and please everyone all the time and we do the best we can to put a good show together to make everyone happy. People who complain can direct their comments now on directly to me and I can take them into consideration. And believe me, they will be read. Send them to me: [email protected]."

AEROSMITH spent time earlier this year working on a new studio album, and the plan was to have it ready by now, but it probably won't be out until the middle of next year.

AEROSMITH will release a new greatest-hits collection in October titled "Devil's Got a New Disguise". The CD takes its title from one of two new songs that will be included on the 16-track album. Perry described it as "a classic AEROSMITH rocker," while the other fresh track, "Sedona Sunrise", has been around for awhile and was considered for other AEROSMITH albums. "We felt like it really had to come out," Perry told Billboard.com.

The rest of the set will be a "pared down" single-disc version of 2002's two-CD set "O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits", containing single mixes of 14 favorites from the band's tenures with both Columbia and Geffen.