By Paul Robicheau

But this wasn’t just a night for the hits. It was an occasion for raw, in-the-trenches rock (none of Aerosmith’s later commercial dreck) and rarely, if ever, played songs.

Chris Robinson, Jason Sutter, and Joe Perry at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. Photo: Paul Robicheau

With Aerosmith retired from touring because of Steven Tyler’s vocal cord injury, guitarist Joe Perry uncorked the next best thing on Tuesday at the Boch Center Wang Theatre with a killer all-star edition of the Joe Perry Project.

The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson — whose band was opening Aerosmith’s scuttled farewell tour and planned New Year’s Eve blowout at TD Garden — conveniently filled the front man role. Perry’s retooled solo outfit also brought in Aerosmith guitar foil Brad Whitford along with Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo, whose rhythm mate Eric Kretz dropped out of the tour due to a family emergency. He was replaced by past Joe Perry Project drummer Jason Sutter, who sharpened his chops enough to earn MVP consideration, while Aerosmith sideman Buck Johnson inserted keyboards and vocals.

Brad Whitford with the Joe Perry Project at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The tone was set from the start with “Let the Music Do the Talking,” Perry lacing buzzy slide riffs with a dirty stutter over a locomotive beat. Robinson egged on Perry by putting an excited pep in his step. The singer muffed a verse in “My Fist Your Face,” but embraced “Mama Kin,” pinching fingers to his lips when delivering its line about smoking weed. He twice shared his mic with Perry, who faced off with DeLeo while Whitford squeezed a cleaner-toned solo.

Yes, this was a night for fans of Aerosmith, whose songs dominated half of the hour-and-three-quarters set. But this wasn’t just a night for the hits. It was an occasion for raw, in-the-trenches rock (none of Aerosmith’s later commercial dreck) and rarely, if ever, played songs. These included mid-’70s nuggets “Combination,” “Get It Up” (Sutter nailing its rat-a-tat shifts), and “Get the Lead Out,” which slid into Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker,” Perry taking a casual stab at Jimmy Page’s famous guitar soliloquy.

Granted, Robinson didn’t display the high range of Tyler, much less Robert Plant (though the Crowes backed Page on a tour in 2000). But he flashed the same showman’s facility for lifting and twirling a mic stand that Tyler once did, even if Robinson’s marching-in-place struts came across as kinda dorky. In turn, the set spaced two Black Crowes favorites, both with Perry wielding a slide to his acrylic guitar. “Twice as Hard” lagged after the Aerosmith/Zeppelin twofer, but the entire band was locked in later for “Jealous Again,” sprinkled with boogie-woogie piano from Johnson.

Stone Temple Pilots also earned two slots. A slow treatment of “Interstate Love Song” didn’t work as well without its usual brawny swells, though it was cool to see the Joe Perry Project try something different (if the same thing happened to an Aerosmith tune, fans might have grumbled). But “Vaseline” was spot on, with bassist DeLeo fingering a bit more active punctuation and Sutter fully in control of its choppy drum signature.

Perry dedicated “Won’t Let Me Go” to the recently passed Terry Reid, who sang on that Perry song, and turned down chances to join Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple back in the day. Robinson noted that his nickname was “Superlungs,” before settling for a hearty pub-rock vocal while performing that interesting outlier, which mixed a rhythm program, dynamic drumming, and power chords.

Robert DeLeo and Joe Perry at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The guitarists each stood out in late back-to-back Aerosmith features, Perry singing lead on his punk rock-ish “Bright Light Fright,” and Whitford stepping forward on “Last Child” — from skeletal intro to crying upper-register solo.

“Draw the Line” closed the set with an exclamation point. Robinson carried his mic stand around the stage like a hobby horse, the song’s booming riff breaking down into a vicious Perry slide solo. At the end, he dropped the guitar to the floor and whipped its strings with a shirt for noisy bursts while Robinson leapt up and down as if to mime real damage. This was not something Perry was about to do for real with one of his favorite guitars, even though his guitar tech handed him quite a few (oddly over the top of the amp stack).

Chris Robinson, Jason Sutter, and Joe Perry at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Robinson’s finest moments may have come in the encore. His own jiving personality perfectly fit the near-spoken style of “Walk This Way,” which was cut short presumably to squeeze in “Train Kept a-Rollin’” before an 11 p.m. curfew. The raspy-voiced singer knew how to sell that standard with joyful passion, and he and Perry pumped fists as the crowd chanted “All night long!”

Well, not quite. If fans want another encore, they can see the Joe Perry Project open the Who’s farewell show at Fenway Park next Tuesday. Granted, it won’t be anywhere near as long as the band’s set at the Wang Theatre. But Aerosmith’s status aside, at 74, Perry clearly doesn’t want to say goodbye.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian in addition to writing and photography for the Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.