A Quintessential Supergroup - Chickenfoot

The band Chickenfoot is one of the recent aggregate bands to form, bringing together legendary musicians in the spirit of fun and good old rock and roll.  Having each reached mega stardom in their own right, Sammy Hagar and Van Halens bassist Michael Anthony, have joined forces with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and the legendary guitarist Joe Satriani.  As for how they came together, Sammy Hagar told Classic Rock magazine In April of this year that the band "started off with me, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith jamming at my club, Cabo Wabo, in Mexico. Then people started asking us when we were going to tour, make a record, etc. So I said if were going to do this properly then were going have to get a guitarist, lets talk to Joe Satriani. As far as Im concerned hes the best guitarist in the world."  (Sorry Eddie).
 
In June the band released its self-titled first album, and they will be touring up until September 27th, but as for the bands future, thats up in the air.  The Chili Peppers are starting another album in October, which will put Chickenfoot on hold indefinitely.  But due to the generally laid back nature of the project, they say they are just going with the flow, not really sure if they will be working together again anytime soon.
 
When asked about the name, Mark Anthony said  "it was just supposed to be a bullshit name that wed used for a while, and then [when] the rumors spread about the band, everybody used that name so we thought, "fuck it, lets call it Chickenfoot" - it all comes down to the music anyway."

And speaking of the music - with song titles like soap on a rope, oh yeah and sexy little thing, this project definitely strikes one initially as a light-hearted endeavor " but theres some really good stuff to be heard here.  The pairing of rough, raw, rock and roll blues, with Satrianis legendary sound and style, puts this selection of songs in its own category - on a serious level.  Hagar and Anthony are in their element here of course, and their proven and well-traveled vocal chemistry really shines on tracks like Avenida Revolution and Future in the Past " two of my personal favorites. Straight forward tracks like Runnin Out and Soap on a Rope are nicely offset by the albums introspective Learning to Fall " with the whole collection coming together, as a well-rounded and solidly cohesive endeavor.  
 

For a band that fell together haphazardly with a whimsical tenor, this sure doesn’t come across as such.  If we get to see them come together again to do a second album, we are left to wonder what a “serious” project would yield – as it stands this impulse has afforded us a very enjoyable and respectable body of work, and it gives us something to hope for in the future.

 
For concert dates:
 
http://www.chickenfoot.us/tour