THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, JUly 14, 2023 Page 9 Ex-Boston guitarist rocks into Saugus for Veterans Benefit Concert O n July 16, Barry Goudreau’s Engine Room will kick off Rockin’ 4 Vets summer Veterans Benefit Concert Series outside at Kowloon Restaurant (Rte. 1 North, Saugus), just before their run as opener for the Hollywood Vampires. Barry Goudreau’s Engine Room features a stellar lineup with longtime bandmates: keyboardist and songwriter Brian Maes along with bassist Tim Archibald and drummer Tony DePietro. Also joining the band are a powerhouse group of vocalists in Mary Beth Maes, Terri O’Soro and Joanie Cicatelli. Maes and Archibald have worked together extensively over the years, both in Peter Wolf’s band and with Goudreau in Orion the Hunter, RTZ, Ernie & the Automatics and now Engine Room. ASKS | FROM PAGE 7 just seems like you go through one part of your life being close to a certain amount of people, and they fade away and then you go to another phase of your life. And the Corvette is where I am right now. And I’m with a bunch of other people, and I’m surrounded by people like myself that have a love for a car. But it’s more than that. It brings us together. We go out to eat all of the time. We share stories together. We help each other. We go through some good times. We go through some tough times with one of our members having an illness. But it brings us close together, so we help one another. So, with the Corvette, it’s kind of like the roots of a tree. It just grows. It just flourishes and with different branches. Q: Anything else that you would like to share about the Corvette? Al: No. Q: Frank, tell me, when was your first love of the Corvette? Frank Puccia: When I got married, the practicality of having a sports car was down the drain because I needed a regular commuter. You don’t drive a Corvette as a regular commuter car. Usually, you drive it in warm weather when it’s nice out, and you put it away for the winters. It wasn’t a practical car for me at the get the soaring riffs on songs like “Long Time,” “Don’t Look Back” and “Rock & Roll Band” – which led to their debut album being the best-selling debut record of all time. Prior to Goudreau’s deparBarry Goudreau Legendary guitarist There is nothing more to say about Barry Goudreau (former guitarist for arena rockers Boston) regarding this band. His time because we both had to work. Having a third car wasn’t in the plans. Q: So, when was your first Corvette? Frank: My first Corvette was in 2005. I just retired in 2003 and I wanted to get a convertible sports car. And I have a cousin down in Florida that sells cars. I called him up and told him what I wanted. He said, “I have a Corvette in my garage. You want to buy it?” And I said, “Sure, why not.” So, I bought it from him. I had it shipped up from Florida. It was a 1990 C-4 Corvette, Torch Red, red interior with a black convertible roof. And it had really low miles on it for a car being over 20 something years old. Q: How many miles on it? Frank: It had 1,900 miles. The thing was like in the garage forever. So, I had it shipped up from Florida. And I drove that car for five years until somebody hit me… t-boned me on the corner of Central and Lincoln. And I tried to get it repaired, but I couldn’t find any parts for it at the time to fix it right. I took the insurance money and I sold the car as is. And then I went on a looking spree for another one. And I spent the winter online. And in 2011 I got the car I have now. I found it online on CarGurus in Springfield, Mass. I drove out there and checked it out. Q: Torch Red? Frank: Yeah, Torch Red. What guitar sound was largely responsible for the sale of over 40,000,000 copies of the band’s first two records. When the other color is more popular for a Corvette? It’s Torch Red. If you look at all of the Corvettes sold, the Number One color is Torch Red. Number Two is White. The original Corvette in 1953 was only one color – white. If you’re going to have a Corvette, you’ve gotta have Torch Red. That’s my opinion. When I got the Corvette, I started looking online. I saw that there were different car clubs and different car shows would go along. George Moriello, the barber, told me there’s a group of Corvette owners who would meet at the Liberty Tree Mall [Danvers]. That’s how I started getting into the different scenes with the car. Then I found out there was a Corvette Night at Sylvan Street Grill, so I went down there and people said I had to join the club. They gave me an application and that’s how it started. Q: What do you get out of the club? Frank: I enjoy the car. We enjoy taking nice rides with the car. We like the socialization with all of the people. Like Al had mentioned, we got a good group of people. We keep in contact with each other, go to all different places. We travel all over the place. It’s more like an eating club than anything. We go to more restaurants than you can shake a stick at. Almost every weekend, we’re driving somewhere and getting food. Q: What’s the longest proChecking old newspaper articles, pictured from left to right, are Al Marotta and Linda and Frank Puccia. (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler) cession of Corvettes from your club? Frank: Our club participated in a function, which was called “Vets to Vets.” And on the last Sunday of every September, all Corvettes converge at the Marriott Hotel in Billerica. And we have a procession from Billerica to the Bedford Veterans Hospital. When the first car leaves Billerica and gets to Bedford, they are still coming out of the parking lot in Billerica. Over 700 and something Corvettes participated in that event, and it gets bigger and bigger every single year. But as far as North Shore Corvettes, we had our biggest ASKS | SEE PAGE 10 first note of any of these songs comes on, you know the songs; they are so distinctive to a generation. After all, who can forture from the band, he continued in a similar style, producing work of his own. In 1980 he went on to record his first solo project, which was titled “Barry Goudreau.” The LP successfully hit the airwaves with the songs “Dreams” and “Mean Woman Blues.” In 1984, Goudreau formed the band Orion the Hunter and released a debut LP with Fran Cosmo as lead vocalist. The album included the single “So You Ran.” The band toured in support of Aerosmith. General admission and VIP packages tickets are available at gimmeLIVE.com. The show starts at 1:00 p.m.
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