Chickenfoot - "Get Your Buzz On LIVE" - DVD/Blu-Ray

Regular readers know of our love of Chickenfoot here at Rockgig.. we reviewed their gig at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire (read it here) and their CD (right here) and we adored both of them. So if you've read both of those reviews (and I think you should) then there is little that I can add to sell this to you - you know it's going to be good - and it is. From the start of Avenida Revolution to the crowd's cheers at the end of My Generation when Sammy says "That's the way Rock n Roll is supposed to be played!" - and he ain't wrong. The guy is in his 60's now but he still has that voice.

Filmed with 16 hi-definition cameras over three sold out concerts, Chickenfoot: Get Your Buzz On “Live” offers fans an unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience four rock’n’roll legends sharing the stage and blowing the roof off with their explosive musicianship and  dynamic onstage chemistry.  In case you've been living under a rock for a while Chickenfoot won Best New Band of 2009 at the Classic Rock Magazine Awards, and features vocalist Sammy Hagar (ex-Van Halen, Montrose), bassist Michael Anthony (ex-Van Halen), drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani.

The band’s self-titled debut album, released in heat sensitive packaging, was released to critical acclaim in June 2009, and has since been certified gold in both America and Canada with sales in excess of 750,000 copies.  During the same year, the band embarked on a small North American club tour, performed in Europe in the summer and returned to North America to perform two sold out tours, one in the summer, followed by another in the fall. During the summer of 2009, the electrifying, hi-energy concert performances were filmed in hi-definition by award-winning director Daniel E. Catullo III (Rush, Creed, Godsmack, Smashing Pumpkins) and mixed in DTS 5.1 Surround Sound by Mike Fraser.

The Blu-ray and DVD features one full concert shot at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix, Arizona on September 23rd, 2009, plus live segments from shows at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia and The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Track Listing:

1. Avenida Revolution
2. Sexy Little Thing
3. Soap On A Rope
4. My Kinda Girl
5. Down The Drain
6. Bitten By The Wolf
7. Oh Yeah
8. Learnin’ To Fall
9. Get It Up
10. Turnin’ Left
11. Future In The Past
12. Bad Motor Scooter
13. My Generation

Main Concert:
Running Time: 97 minutes (approx)
Audio:
dts 5.1 Surround Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Also on the disc is a photo gallery and a 52 minute documentary which is just as entertaining as the live gig.  It's full of exclusive, never-before-seen backstage footage, rare interviews, extra performance footage, and interview segments featuring a host of special guests including Adam Corolla, Bob Weir and Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel (aka Christopher Guest). Chad Smith is a legend - just stopping people on the street, showing them a photo of Chickenfoot and asking them if they know who they are (apparently yes,  that is Jimmy Page on guitar) Adam Corolla asks Michael Anthony what it's like being the worst member of the band and Christopher Guest confirms that it was him we saw at the Shepherd's Bush Empire gig (I'm sure that's a fiver you owe me Mark!)

Chickenfoot: Get Your Buzz On “Live” is released on DVD & Blu-ray in the USA by EMI America (April 20), and in the UK by Eagle Rock Entertainment (April 26).  Further info:www.chickenfoot.us

NR.

Bad Company / Joe Perry Project - Wembley 11th April 2010

Whoever runs the Wembley complex needs to have a diary.  Due to the fact the FA Cup Semi Final between Spurs and Portsmouth started at 4pm we would be scheduled to arrive as 90000 leave.  So a prebooked car park ticket and after a visit to IKEA we arrived around 5pm.  No problem in the car park and a trip to the Moore Spice bar opposite the ground to watch the second half and extra time.  Hearing the crowd whilst watching it on a big screen was strange!!  Great fun when you don't care who wins and one Spurs fan even had a full knights helmet on!!

Trip across to the Arena with around 35000 cheesed off Spurs coming our way was fun too!!

Anyway back to the real reason for our visit.First up was Steve Rodgers(son of Paul)for a 20 minute 5 song acoustic set.  Very good voice and a good response from the crowd too.

Now Joe Perry with Aerosmith is a god how is he as the main man?  Not too bad I have to say.  Although his between song ramblings have to be heard to be beleived.  Joe shut up and play.  In the 60 minute set we started with Let The Music Do The Talking and Walkin' The Dog and finished with Train Kept A'Rollin' and Walk This Way.  All with Joe showing us why he is so adored.   Inbetween we had the rest.  Some of the new Project cd,some old Project,a bass solo,a song by Tab(his sons band)and a random Fleetwood Mac song.  Joe sang on some leaving his singer to be back up or hitting a drum and not singing!  A decent warm up with moments of brilliance all Joe's geetar playing!!

I have now seen Bad Company 3 times.Once supporting Deep Purple(blew them away!!)with Brian Howe,once with Paul Rodgers and Dave Bucket Colwell and now with the 3 remaining members(Paul Rodgers on vox,Simon Kirke on drums and Mick Ralphs on geetar) and Howard Leese(ex Heart)on second geetar and Lynn Sorensen on bass.

With the recently released Hard Rock live cd/dvd proving what a great band they are I was looking forward to it.  Although internet reviews of earlier gigs had seen a 75 minute set and Leese playing nearly all of the solos.

So what did we get.

A setlist of

Can't Get Enough

Honey Child

Running With The Pack

Burnin' Sky

Young Blood

Seagull

Gone,Gone,Gone

Electricland

Simple Man

Feel Like Makin' Love

Shooting Star

Rock n'Roll Fantasy

Movin' On

Encores of Ready For Love

Bad Company and

Deal With The Preacher.

I have to say they were excellent.  The Leese/Rodgers stories were correct with Leese doing most of the solos and doing a grand job.  With the show being filmed for a live dvd they added 15 minutes to the set so happy with that too.  The stage set up had 3 huge L.E.D. screens behind the band adding to the depth of the stage and during Shooting Star showing pictures of fallen stars like Bonham,Moon,Hendrix,Elvis and Paul Kossoff.  Excellent lights show too.

The star of the show was Paul Rodgers. What a voice the man has and with probably the best out front sound at a gig I have ever heard a real treat.  The acoustic led Seagull was brilliant.  With an excellent 3 song encore rounding off the nite superbly.

A concern for the live dvd would be the crowd who were at best dull. I know a lot of them were old and probably haven't been to a gig for years but please express yourselves.

So Bad Company are back and what a treat.  Where they go from here will be interesting but on tonite's showing in the live setting there are few bands comparable.

ME 

10/10.

Voodoo Six - The Union – Leeds Rio’s 11 April 2010

Well I’d won a competition to see The Union sound check before the show which meant I had to be at the venue at the ridiculous time of 5:00 only to be told the band were having problem so could we come back at six. So, off to the Wren pub us competition winners went. I had an excellent pint of Leeds Brewery Pale Ale.
Back to Rio’s for 6:00, this time we were let in, but it appears that the problems were with a power supply to the sound desk and the back up was also faulty. To cut a long story short, we didn’t get to see the sound check, but we did get to meet the band and have chat with Luke Morley and co – more on that at the end. We were then ushered out and at that time it looked liked the gig would not go ahead.

When I returned to Rio’s for the third time the sound from outside was a bit more hopeful and eventually the descent size crowd was let in.

First up was Joe McAdam doing a solo acoustic set and I have to say I really enjoyed it.
Next up the great Voodoo Six, who I've seen a few times before and liked, but this was the first time I’d seen them with the new singer Luke Purdie. The set was all new material, some of which you can listen to on the internet at their web site. They put in a great performance and Luke is good front man. I’m looking forward to seeing them in the future.

On to the main event, The Union, this was only the second night of the tour and the third show the band had done. I enjoyed the show, but it did seem a little broken up in places with constant changing of guitars etc. I assume that all this will become slicker as the tour progresses. Peter Shoulder is a good front man and had a good voice, and band have some good songs, though I must confess the rockier ones like Step Up to the Plate were more to my liking. It is always difficult when bands have no CD out and only a small of material available on the net, but what I saw tonight would make me come along to see them again.

Set list

1. Easy Street

2. You Know My Name

3. Black Monday

4. Holy Roller

5. Watch the River Flow

6. Lilies

7. The Space Between Us

8. This Time Next Year

9. Saviour

10. Step up to the Plate

-

11. Come Rain

12. Proud Mary

Before the show I managed to grab a quick chat with Tony Newton from Voodoo Six. The band are really pleased with new singer Luke Purdie and think that his voice really suits the band, and having seen the set tonight set I would fully agree.

I also managed to have a chat with Geoff Holroyde from Big Linda who is standing in on Drums for The Union on this tour. We discussed the Big Linda CD “I Loved You.” A great CD if you’ve not heard it check it out. Unfortunately singer Rob Alder has now left the band and is a carpenter, but according to Geoff the other there member are continuing to work together on new material though it looks like this won’t be released under the Big Linda name. I for one am looking forward to hearing any new material from that venture.
NH

Bowling For Soup (an acoustic evening with Jaret & Erik) - Oxford O2 - April 11th 2010

I love Bowling for Soup.. my kids (bar one) all love Bowling for Soup so it was a rare family gig with me, my eldest  daughter and my son off to see the same band, at the same time. (The last time we did that was to see Cheap Trick/Def Leppard which prompted some bloke in the bar to comment "Christ - how naughty have those kids been if the punishment is this bad! - which nearly caused a fight as he was talking about the people I love..Cheap Trick!)

Anyway, support was from a band called We Sunk Atlantis, which the Eldest declared as both "fit" and "lush". Music-wise was hard to tell as they were playing acoustic (except the drummer who just sat there and chipped in with vocals) but seemed just as good as the other stuff that blasts from Eldest's iPod. No doubt I'll be hearing more of them.

Now Bowling for Soup.. or more accurately An Acoustic Evening With Jaret and Erik. This is BFS stripped down to just the vocalist and the bass player, but both playing acoustic guitars. It was an intimate setting, a couple of chairs, some table lamps and a lectern holding the BFS Songbook. Bowling for Soup are normally a high energy Pop-Punk band who tend to sing about love, high-school and knob jokes. But in this chilled out setting it still worked. A good crowd sang back every word in what became part rock-gig, part stand-up. The banter, the stories, the Monty Python impressions and of course the music made it a really fun gig.  Hearing the BFS back catalogue unplugged in this way gave it a different dimension. You really appreciate how good these two are at vocals & harmonies and what cracking songs they write, (although we later discovered that Erik is a songwriter and Jaret is a song maker-upper). They took requests from the audience (although ignored the frequent calls for Emily - which I imagine is a bitch to play on an acoustic guitar), played songs from years ago through to the brilliant latest album ("Sorry for Partyin'") and, after discovering that Two-Seater had the same chord progression as a recently revived Journey song, they played a blinding version of Don't Stop Believin'

*stop press* I forgot to mention (thanks for the comment below for reminding me) .. We got a mammoth two and half hour show.. all for less than the price of parking at a B*n J*v* gig !  ..

Top marks - look forward to the full band tour in October.

Edit this setlist | More Bowling for Soup setlists

NR

Trivium - Oxford O2 - 20th March 2010

I like to go to a gig to make me smile.This 4 band bill left me cold bar Trivium I am afraid

Rise To Remain up first at the un rock n'roll time of 5.45. Led by Austin Dickinson (son of Bruce) they got a great reception. Big riffs,growling vocals although when he sang(!)at the choruses very good and yes he does put his foot on the monitor like his dad. One to watch.

The next 2 bands were shite. Whitechapel and Chimaira. The first were probably worse. 6 piece, 3 geetars, no solos and not an understandable word sung(!) and then Chamaira who had a few solos but again not one word understood. The kids around all enjoyed it and I have to say hats off to the soundman who did a great job, honestly he did, it could have been worse.

Trivium I like. Growling vocals but such melodic choruses and solos. Went down a storm playing a greatest hits set

The End Of Everything

Rain

Drowned and Torn Asunder

Like Light To The Flies

Throes Of Perdition

Down From The Sky

Ascendancy

Insurrection

Anthem (we are the fire)

Shattering The Skies

Slave New World (Sepultura cover)

Dying In Your Arms

A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation

Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr.

Again the kids loved it, lots of pits and new drummer Nick Augusto fitted in well.  Matt Heafy was the star of the show as always. New song Shattering bodes well for the next cd.

Only a 70 minute set because of the 4 bands and a 9.50 finishing time.

Trivium and Rise to Remain 8/10

The rest 0.

ME

Winger Islington Academy 4th April 2010

Tonite I have looked forward to for the last 6 months after Winger released the excellent "Karma"cd but as is the norm these days we have 2 support acts first.

Unlike the recent Trivium gig tonite we had 2 excellent bands to watch.  First up Furyon from Brighton.  Wow is all I can come up with.  Crashing riffs the size of elephants,solos,huge choruses,hair,and the stage presence of seasoned pros they blew the place apart. The twin geetar team of Pat Heath (ex Danny Vaughn and Peter Frampton) and Chris Green were immense.Chris joined Winger later in the evening on bass for the 3 ballads allowing Kip to go on keys for Rainbow, Headed and Miles Away. Matt Mitchell on vox led from the front and their 30 minute set went past in a flash.

Their debut cd called "Gravitas",recorded in the US is out in the summer and they have a myspace site with 3 songs on it which they also have out as an ep. "Disappear Again"the first song on it is brilliant and went down a storm live. Goto www.myspace.com/furyon to check it out and roll on the summer when the cd is out.

Now after that you really need to be good to stand out and luckily next up was Airrace.  Famous for having Jason Bonham on their only cd Shaft Of Light released 25 years ago and recently remastered and put out by Rock Candy Records. With Keith Murrell(vox)(ex Mamas Boys)in fantastic voice and Laurie Mansworth on lead geetar they ripped through most of the fore mentioned cd with special mention to "First One Over The Line","Open Your Eyes"and "Brief Encounter" all sounding heavier on stage than cd. With quite a few family and friends adding to the ambience their 40 minute set again flew past.  A new cd is being recorded so I look forward to that one too.

Winger really needed to be on top form after those 2 I can tell you and like the consummate pros they are we had no worries.  I first saw them 19 years ago supporting The Scorpions then after being dismantled by Beavis and Butthead split up and have come back stronger.

Heres the setlist they could have played all nite for me.

Pull Me Under

Blind Revolution Mad

Easy Come Easy Go

Stone Cold Killer

Rainbow In The Rose

Deal With The Devil

Down Icognito

Your Great Escape

You Are The Saint I Am The Sinner

Headed For A Heartbreak

Can't Get Enuff

Seventeen

Encores Miles Away

Madalaine

Helter Skelter(Beatles number)

Great sound excellent crowd and a superb performance from all.

Reb Beach(busy man with his Whitesnake job too)showed us his chops with a stunning solo and Rod Morgenstein(drums)also had one too.

We also had an extended geetar solo from John Roth(the new lead geetarist of Giant on the stunning Promise Land out on Frontiers). When geetarist number 2 is so good it shows the incredible talent in this band.

Up front Kip was a great frontman and seemed to be having a ball which blows away the memory of the Firefest show of a few years back.

After 80 mins they called all 3 bands up to celebrate the end of the UK tour and with the promoter Steve Strange on drums hit us with a great Helter Skelter. It was funny seeing Kip ask Keith from Airrace to sing with him when he clearly didn't know the words.

So after the dissappointment of 2 weeks ago tonite showed a 3 band bill can work.All 3 were superb and for £18 a really fantastic nite out.

ps: I knew my old rock n'roll brain wasn't going mad but in moving all my cd's around I found the cd's Far From The Edge and Signs Of Purity by Pride.Stunning cd's then disappeared.The singer Matt Mitchell and Chris Green(geetar) are now in Furyon.

10/10