Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Chickenfoot
Label: Redline Entertainment
Released: 2009
Running time: 57:47
Rating: 4/5
Every now and then a band comes along that critics or listeners tag as a supergroup. Its members are musicians with star status and glittering careers who see the new setup as a chance to discover new musical worlds. To name just a few: Cream, Blind Faith, Bad Company, Asia, Traveling Wilburys, Temple Of The Dog and Audioslave. Those are the names the members of Chickenfoot are now joining. The goofy name hides some rock giants: drummer Chad Smith is in Red Hot Chili Peppers, singer Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony used to be in Van Halen, and Joe Satriani plays guitar. Most of these big-sounding projects fall apart before the opening notes are even done. The road after the Chickenfoot debut is a different story, though. Expectations in the music world had been sky-high ever since the lineup was announced. Judging by online chatter, the most common reaction was still a fair amount of skepticism. How do you get four seasoned players into the same studio and onto the same stage? To paraphrase singer Hagar, Chickenfoot wouldn’t even exist if he hadn’t clicked with guitarist Satriani. The two of them wrote most of the songs together, while bassist Anthony and drummer Smith helped finish them in the studio.
Chickenfoot grew out of a bunch of casual gigs at Hagar’s bar Cabo Wabo in the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas. On the Chickenfoot debut, seriousness takes a total back seat. All four recorded the new music pretty much for their own fun, since each of them had found time in their own careers for a new direction. That relaxed approach is exactly the key to Chickenfoot’s summery music. After decades of recording and performing as one of the most famous guitarists around, Joe Satriani has truly come alive in a band with a vocalist. Sammy Hagar, 61, who for some defined the second era of the legendary Van Halen, has been solid enough as a solo artist, but he was running out of challenges. Michael Anthony is a battle-hardened bassist and maybe even better known as an outstanding backing vocalist. His high tenor was fantastic on every Van Halen album, and on the Chickenfoot record it firmly proves the point above. The Van Halen brothers must be getting a nasty case of the hiccups over him. Chad Smith is a drummer who sometimes might remind you of John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. He’s got plenty of experience: besides his main band, he’s worked with the likes of Johnny Cash, Glenn Hughes, John Fogerty, Fishbone and others. All four are full of healthy, and at times slightly lucid, humor, and it fuels a pretty wide range of musical territory. They’re mostly planted firmly in hard rock, but they dress it up with blues, funk, jazz and soul. More than half the songs run past five minutes, which is quite a mouthful for radio stations. That’s exactly why Chickenfoot will play a lot of live shows, where their music can really come into its own. The Chickenfoot debut also exists as a vinyl release with an extra track. Business moves matter a lot in these modern internet times. If you buy the original Chickenfoot debut, you get a sleeve that reacts to temperature. The otherwise black cover reveals what’s hiding under its coating when it’s warmed by your body heat.
If we put the instrumental side of the Chickenfoot record under the microscope, I admit the tightness and tuning of the drums and bass are decent, at moments even standard. Anthony is capable of a lot more, but the guys had enough good sense to deliver the notes in the low end properly. Satriani is known for his undeniable chops as a soloist, and he’s fitted into the band well. The songs breathe easy even after his solo excursions, which he doses out smartly and articulately, as he’s always done. It’s especially interesting to watch how these four giants work together, since it’s probably clear they’d push their instruments to the front whenever, and if, there’s a chance. Chickenfoot don’t burn out here. Quite the opposite, they even push each other to find a musical shape that will win over even the harshest skeptics. Some will say Chickenfoot are like Led Zeppelin, but that’s a very bold claim. Better to say they grew out of a desire to jam loosely, which can give them a lot of extra courage and confidence. How long Chickenfoot will stay together, I don’t know. Next year Red Hot Chili Peppers are supposed to get back to recording new music, and I hope the other three members will be settled enough in themselves to wait for Smith. Going by the music on the Chickenfoot debut, it’s almost impossible to hear anyone else in the drummer’s seat. Some ideas we may have heard somewhere before, and the odd scrap of melody too, and a few lyrics are maybe a bit on the borderline of usable, but still. Sammy Hagar is still an unstoppable kid who’d party day and night. Somebody might say that at his age it’s no longer appropriate or even hygienic, but it’s more than obvious that good music and hanging out with his buddies in Chickenfoot means the world to him. At least for now. Given the millions sitting in their bank accounts, Chickenfoot is not a project for the money. It’s a faithful snapshot of a moment when four gifted creators pulled off a very solid passion project. They’ve surely touched a lot of ears around the world with it.
Lineup
Sammy Hagar – vocals
Joe Satriani – guitar, banjo, harmonica, keyboards, vocals
Michael Anthony – bass guitar, vocals
Chad Smith – drums, percussion, vocals
Production
Andy Johns
Track list
1. Avenida Revolucion (5:56)
2. Soap on a Rope (5:32)
3. Sexy Little Thing (4:14)
4. Oh Yeah (4:54)
5. Runnin’ Out (3:52)
6. Get It Up (4:41)
7. Down the Drain (6:17)
8. My Kinda Girl (4:32)
9. Learning to Fall (5:13)
10.Turnin’ Left (5:48)
11.Future in the Past (6:38)
12.Bitten by the Wolf (4:24)
