Another in my Oprah-stealing idea "My Favorite Things" infrequent posts.
[Sorry for the run-on sentence. If I don't just type, I'll never get through this.]
Anyway, the Chickenfoot album has been out for two months now, and I haven't commented. A big reason for that is: the album hasn't left my vehicle since I picked it up. I wanted to give a track-by-track rundown, but with the disc in my car, and my computer in my house, it's been tough to do.
You see, Chickenfoot is a great album, especially when played loudly. My car has the best way for me to listen to it loudly, so it's there.
So is it good? Lets just say, when I first played it and turned it up, I said, as Bandit 6 in John Ringo's The Last Centurion (another favorite thing I'll get to later) frequently said: "Oh... my... fucking... God!"
It starts out in true kick-ass hard rock fashion with "Avenida Revolution" and doesn't let up. It's one of very few albums I've heard that doesn't have a clunker in the group. I can listen from the first to last tracks without FFing through a song I'm not into.
I could write about this forever, but I'll just keep it to one of my favorite things about the album (aside from just being a great hard rock album) is that the mix is great. The bass and the drums are just as easy to hear as the guitars and the vocals. When you have a guy like Satriani, one of the greatest rock-style guitarists out there, "allowing" the rhythm section some prominence, you know this dude is all about making the best rock album possible, not just a great guitar album.
To just notch-up my love for this band even more, I saw them in the Twin Cities area (Maplewood, MN, to be more specific) with my better half and my friends Brian (thanks for getting the tix) and Sean.
I was truly impressed by the amount of fun the band seemed to be having.
Of course, Mr. Hagar always looks like he's having fun, and I've seen him in some pretty small venues that may not seem like fun, and Mikey (Anthony) performs much the same way. [Side note: it's damn cool to hear Mike's vocals with Sammy's again. I love the Wabos, but no one does it like Mike.] It was the other guys I hadn't seen live before that clinched it for me.
First is Satch. Cueball bald and skintight shades, he doesn't have the hair flying, wild eyed look that is a staple for hard rock-- but he still worked it. He was on the opposite side as me, so I didn't get to see him as much as the others, but when I did look over there, he had the spread-leg stance that guitar gods have. He also just seems to let the guitar speak for itself. He doesn't draw attention to himself by making wild poses or doing crazy things (aside from the couple of times I saw him playing his axe with his mouth), he just cooks on the guitar.
And finally, Mr. Chad Smith. I could have watched that dude all night. My favorite bands (and nearly all my concert experiences) are Van Halen and Sammy Hagar and the Wabos, so the drummer is usually the "3rd-most important" member, if that; so the drummers are usually in the back and barely seen. But not with Chickenfoot. Chad was almost as far up on stage as everyone else-- and some fool gave him a microphone, which he put to good use. This guy is a clown in all the best definitions of the word. He played Sammy's foil throughout much of the show (more than once when Sammy started telling a story, Chad would start playing the drums to throw him off) and also played a few pranks (my favorite is when he re-tuned the electric guitar slung across Satriani's back while Satch was playing an acoustic).
He also claimed to be from the area (which I verified on Wikipedia), and made a few shout-outs to his mom in the crowd; claiming she was a cougar and that the males in the crowd needed to watch out for her.
And Chad's most impressive (to me) feat: throwing drumsticks out in the crowd-- and always seeming to have a stick in each hand after doing it.
My friend, who wants me to credit him as Turd Ferguson, sent me a few videos he took at the show, so I'll be posting them in the (hopefully) near future. And he also told me about a few better-quality clips he found on the net I'll embed in here as well.
So, first thing: get the album. Second thing: try to catch them live. Third thing: check out the web for clips and interviews.
And finally, I'd like to close this by saying this doesn't seem to be a one-off deal-- which is what I thought it was a few months ago. One album and one tour isn't enough for this line-up. They made a great album, seem to be having a great time on tour, and everyone says this is a band. My favorite line I've read is when Satriani told Guitar Player "This isn't a project. This is a band."
Get on board early.
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