This weekend, Shadyside's Hunt Armory will have the feel of a heavy duty rock 'n' roll concert -- complete with tour shirts, backstage passes, press passes and lighters -- except that there will be no band. "We are the band," emphasizes Pearlann Porter, artistic director of Pillow Project, which will be transformed into a "cover dance company."

		Pillow Project Dance Company Where: Hunt Armory, 324 Emerson St., Shadyside. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets: $8-$10; 412-661-8110 or www.pillowproject.org.

While unleashing hits from the '60s and '70s at the Armory (after all, Led Zeppelin, then The New Yardbirds, played there in 1969), Porter says her company will "reinvent" songs like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" for its new program, titled "The Concept Album Tour."

On one hand, it's a matter of necessity. Porter's 25 dancers weren't born when these albums were first released, and she doesn't remember much herself, having only been born in the late '70s. But the diminutive director affirms that "we're taking all of these very inspirational, very relevant songs that are completely timeless and we're redoing them in our own way."

"These songs are played just as much as they used to be, so everyone from our generation certainly knows who they are," Porter says in a rapid-fire explanation. "Now we feel very attached to these songs."

But these aren't young, awe-struck artists. The entire show -- art, video, graphics, dance -- is completely attached to the idea that "this music is live -- it's honest, it's real."

Porter asserts that the movement is not just "a bunch of moves," but a deep emotional expression. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," for example, inspires passion from a number of people. "They're very personal about these songs," she says. "All of a sudden we're treading very delicate ground."

She also acknowledges that "choreographing to rock 'n' roll is not easy. I realized that after we were knee deep into this," Porter says. "It's very difficult to have that same kind of reality in your dance as opposed to choreographing a bunch of dance movements on top of the music and letting your dancers look as pretty as they can. We had to re-explore all of our movement, all of our ideas, all of our intentions and really make it honest. It couldn't be false. It really had to be what this music is saying."

Led Zeppelin's "I'm Gonna Crawl" -- the essence of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll -- provided the initial inspiration. Porter's dancers will also grind their way through songs such as John Lennon's "Well, Well, Well" and Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."

Speaking of which, you can park a jet airplane in the Hunt Armory, which normally houses military vehicles. So Pillow Project had to supply its own lighting, dance floor, bleacher seating and ticket tables. "It was quite an expense." Porter says with a sigh. "But it's become very apparent that it's not about that. We're driven by the ideas and how far we're taking it ... which is a lot farther than we thought we would. We want to make this everything it should be, everything it has to be."

So Porter and company are dusting off the old album covers, then closing their eyes, revving up those air guitars and promising to "end with a bang."