Chickenfoot - Deluxe Limited Edition CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

It’s been a great first year for the super group Chickenfoot. With a critically acclaimed album and tour and a Gold Certified record, it’s been as good a start as former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith and guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani could have asked for.

Now the band is giving something back to the fans by releasing a deluxe, limited-edition version of their CD exclusively through Best Buy. The CD contains the original album, as well as the previously only available through iTunes and vinyl bonus track “Bitten by the Wolf” — a heavy blues track that would be at home on the acoustic side of Led Zeppelin III with its distorted vocals and slide guitar.

In addition to the CD is an hour-long DVD filled with studio footage, interviews, live clips and the full-length music video for “Soap On A Rope.” The band intros all of the clips by singing a variation of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” substituting Chickenfoot for the word Christmas and with each band member setting up the footage. It’s clear from these clips, as well as the other studio footage and interviews that these guys love being in a band together, which is refreshing to see, especially considering the sometimes rocky internal politics of both Van Halen and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Live footage is taken from a number of locations, most notably the band’s appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, though additional audio was taken from Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut and the House of Blues in Atlantic City. While the studio versions of these tracks are strong, live is where Chickenfoot really shines, extending solos and driving the songs much harder than on CD.

While some fans may accuse the band of double dipping by rereleasing their album, the CD is limited edition and the DVD is worth the price alone. Chickenfoot is a band whose members play purely for the love of music and it shows. After a successful album and tour, the future looks bright for the band.

Chickenfoot - CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

Earlier this decade, when the chances of reuniting with Van Halen seemed remote at best, Sammy Hagar put together a supergroup consisting of himself, former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony, and Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo from Journey. The group was called Planet Us and made a few appearances, even jamming with guitar legend Joe Satriani. Then, in 2004, the Van Halen reunion happened and Planet Us was put on the backburner. History tells us Hagar’s second go-around with Van Halen ended worse than the first one and he was back to being a solo artist. With Schon and Castronovo back with Journey full time, Hagar once again called upon Anthony and Satriani and, on drums, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers — a friend of Hagar’s and frequent guest at his Cabo Wabo Cantina. The band wrote some songs and decided to go into the studio, but they needed a name. As a joke, the name Chickenfoot was thrown out with the intention of a “better” name being picked later. Well, Chickenfoot stuck and the supergroup has unleashed their self-titled debut on the world.

Any band with two former Van Halen members and Eddie Van Halen-disciple Satriani on guitar will naturally draw comparisons to them, and sure enough, there are some Van Halen-sounding cuts on the album. “Soap on a Rope” could easily fit on For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge or Balance with its sleazy riff, big chorus, and innuendo-laden lyrics. “Runnin’ Out” has a bluesy groove not unlike “Finish What Ya Started,” while “Down the Drain” sounds like Roth-era VH, something the band often shied away from when Hagar fronted them.

It’s not all Van Halen imitation going on here. The opening cut, “Avenida Revolution” features a menacing Satriani riff and the driving rhythm section of Anthony and Smith. Smith’s funk chops are all over the disc and Anthony really gets to shine now that he is out of Eddie’s shadow (Anthony played little to no bass on the last several Van Halen releases) as the drum/bass breakdown on “Avenida Revolution” shows.

Other hard-driving cuts include “Get it Up” featuring blistering lead work from Satriani, and “Turnin’ Left” with a sinister funk groove and dark guitar work recalling George Lynch. While Hagar’s post-Van Halen records are fun, party albums, he is at his best when he has something to prove (as on 1997’s Marching to Mars). He sounds inspired to be working with world-class musicians again. Satriani has said in interviews that he always wanted to play in a band situation, but never found the right one. He may have with Chickenfoot, as his playing and tone are positively monstrous throughout.

Chickenfoot is the sound of four veteran musicians having fun together. There’s only one ballad and the band rocks hard through the other 10 tracks. They’ve certainly upped the ante, and one can’t imagine Eddie Van Halen not trying to top this album with his own rumored Van Halen record. Chickenfoot plans to tour and if the live shows are half as thunderous as the CD, fans will be in for a treat.

Sammy Hagar Concert Review - Detroit, MI 11/2/07

Written by General Jabbo

Sammy Hagar brought the Cabo Wabo Cantina to Detroit on Friday as he and his band, the Waboritas, rocked the Fox Theatre. The tour, which includes fellow ex-Van Halen member Michael Anthony as both an opening act and member of Hagar’s band, made its Detroit stop less than two weeks after Van Halen played its two reunion shows in the area.

Billed as the Mad Anthony Express, Anthony’s group, which included guitarist Vic Johnson and percussionist J.D. from Hagar’s band on drums, opened the show with a half hour set of mostly David Lee Roth-era Van Halen classics, including” “Runnin’ With the Devil,”
“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Light Up the Sky” and “D.O.A.” – the last two being songs Van Halen hasn’t performed on their current tour. The instant Anthony sang his harmony parts to the songs it became apparent what was missing from the Van Halen reunion. Wolfgang Van Halen held his own on the Van Halen tour, but he is no Anthony. The band also included a cover of the ZZ Top song “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers,” with Johnson and Anthony trading lead vocals.

After a short break, Hagar’s band came out, opening with “Sam I Am” from 2006’s Livin’ It Up! album and delivered a set featuring two new songs – the Van Halen-sounding “Open” and the country-flavored “When the Sun Don’t Shine.” The show featured plenty of Hagar classics as well, with three songs from 1981’s Standing Hampton, including his cover of “Piece of My Heart, “The Girl Gets Around” from the Footloose soundtrack,
and, of course, “I Can’t Drive 55.”

Anthony returned to the stage to perform a short set of Van Halen songs with Hagar, including “Best of Both Worlds,” “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You,” and “Why Can’t This Be Love.” He later returned for an acoustic version of “Dreams,” as well as an a cappella version of “Cabo Wabo.”

Hagar in recent years has reinvented himself as sort of a hard rock Jimmy Buffet, attempting to recreate the atmosphere of his Cabo Wabo Cantina at each of the stops on his tour. A mariachi band greeted fans when they entered the theatre while girls in bikinis served drinks. It is an interesting shift, as while the Roth era is generally considered to be more of a party band than the Hagar era, their show was all business, with little talking in between songs. Hagar’s show was like walking onto the middle of a giant New Year’s Eve bash. A different approach for sure, but both shows were great
and fans should be ecstatic both groups are still performing at this level given their history and their age – Hagar recently turned 60.

Hagar said he planned on doing this the rest of his life and thanked the crowd for giving him the opportunity to do so. He seemed genuinely elated to be back in Detroit – a stronghold of his – and it came through in his performance.

Concert Review: Van Halen – Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI – 10/20/07

Written by General Jabbo

Van Halen returned to Detroit Saturday at Joe Louis Arena for the first time in 23 years with original singer David Lee Roth at the mic and for the first time ever without founding bassist Michael Anthony.

In the long Van Halen soap opera, Anthony had a falling out with the Van Halen brothers around 2002, when he joined Sammy Hagar during his joint tour with Roth. This was seen as breaking ranks with the brothers as both Roth and Hagar were out of the band at that point and therefore mortal enemies of Eddie and Alex Van Halen.

Anthony toured with the band on their 2004 tour with Hagar, but only because Hagar refused to do the tour without him. When that tour finished amidst rumors of fighting and substance abuse problems for Eddie (he did a stint in rehab this year), Hagar was once again out and Eddie saw a perfect opportunity for him to take Anthony with him.

Enter Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s 16-year-old son. Turns out, during all those years when Eddie was locked away in his home studio, he was grooming Wolfgang to be the new bassist in Van Halen.

Wolfgang rehearsed with the brothers for over a year when they decided they wanted to take the show on the road. Problem is, they didn’t have a singer. David Lee Roth, whose recent gig as a radio personality fizzled and whose recent solo career wasn’t doing much better, needed Van Halen. Likewise, the band could ill afford to bring in a fourth singer, especially considering their third singer, Gary Cherone, was not accepted by a majority of fans. With Hagar on the outs again, Roth was the only option.

The band announced their tour earlier this year, but postponed it soon after as Eddie entered rehab, suspiciously around the time the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only Hagar and Anthony attended the event. However, when tickets went on sale in August for the tour, fans who had waited 23 years to see the band’s charismatic original front man at the helm would soon get their wish.

In the first of two Detroit shows, the band played to about an 80 percent full house, opening with their cover of the Kinks’ classic, “You Really Got Me.” Roth was a little low in the mix for the first several songs, but that got sorted out and he sang and performed well, punctuating his vocals with Elvis-style karate moves. He described the new lineup as being three quarters original, one quarter inevitable.

Eddie played with great intensity and passion – a far cry from the hit-or-miss nature of the 2004 tour, which was marred by sloppy playing and band fighting. He had a lot of interaction on stage with his son, high-fiving him a few times (and missing cues as a result) and he had some timing issues during “Hot For Teacher,” but for the most part, Eddie was the Eddie of old – playing well, smiling, running and jumping around.

For having big shoes to fill in replacing fan-favorite Anthony, Wolfgang did an admirable job. He doesn’t have the dexterity on bass, vocal ability or stage presence of Anthony, but he didn’t bring the show down either. Roth took it upon himself to educate him in the ways of rock and roll, saying, “Look out there, that’s Detroit.”

The biggest star of the show was drummer Alex Van Halen. He played as well as he ever has and, more importantly, kept the band together when some songs started falling apart.

With a band as volatile as Van Halen, and with no definite plans to continue after the tour ends in December, fans wanting to catch a glimpse of the (mostly) original band should do so while they still have a chance.