Rock Steady producer debuts Boston tribute band

This Boston tribute project could sound more Boston than Boston.

Joe Lamia, Phoenix based-Rock Steady Productions founder and drummer for Don't Look Back, hopes to rock the socks off fans of the original band with this latest tribute incarnation.

"When we heard (Boston singer) Brad Delp died a couple of years ago, obviously that got me thinking about doing a possible Boston show. I had to study it, see what was already out there, and just check the logistics on everything, and do my homework like I always do," Lamia said.

Lamia said he recruited a singer who could perform the vocal gymnastics of Brad Delp from a Styx tribute project he abandoned when the original Styx started playing the local casino circuit.

Once Lamia put a band together, however, Boston

founder Tom Scholz announced Boston would tour again.

It's certainly a bummer, but Lamia said he wanted to stick to the original sound, thoroughly replicating note for note the hit songs from the historic first two albums, to the degree, he said, that the other guitar player and the drummer from the original lineup have offered to play in the project if he books some high-profile shows.

Lamia started Rock Steady Rroductions after forming TNT, an AC/DC tribute project in 2000, and went on to launch a slew of other projects including Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute Freebird, Led Zep Again, the all-girl Iron Maiden tribute Iron Maidens, and Bon Jovi tribute Dead or Alive, of which he says Richie Sambora has guest-cameoed.

"I said that's always been a Rock Steady criteria, to try to get as close to the album as possible, while bringing in some live shtick in combing everything. We already have a knack for that. I got together, out of all my entourage of musicians, the ones I thought were qualified for this. We put together something special, so we'll see what happens. It's going to be real interesting Saturday," he said of the project's debut.

Lamia said the band has spent four months in a studio studying the original Boston sound.

"I wanted to nail the sound and have people walk away and go, 'Oh my God, that sounds just like the album,' and that's what I'm trying to nail with this," he said, mentioning that he wasn't so concerned with the image of the members.

"Funny part about this my vocalist looks very much like Brad Delp. If he grows more facial hair, grows his top hair out - it's scary-looking. I hope Tom doesn't snag him," he said.

"This Boston thing is the hardest thing we've ever had to do, because the music is so sophisticated,' he said of the six-member tribute.

"We hope the fans just freak out."