Chickenfoot's Rowdy Tour Launch Draws Visit From Fire Department

The launch of new rock supergroup Chickenfoot's short spring tour at Seattle's El Corazon last night (May 14th) pleased the rowdy crowd despite a number of logistical issues. Nine songs into the band's main set, a visit from the local fire department to the crowded club prompted a halt on movement from the venue's bar to its stage room.

Chickenfoot were nine songs and 40 minutes into their set and presumably ready to continue when the group's singer, Sammy Hagar, told the audience, "The fire department's going to shut us down in 10 minutes ... This is the end of the regular set." He also promised a 45-minute encore to make up for the delay.

For 20 minutes, the music was halted while the crowd began to trickle out (some with help from the club's security staff); eventually, Hagar and bandmates Michael Anthony (like Hagar, a former Van Halen member), cult shredder Joe Satriani on guitar, and drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) made good on Hagar's promise, playing through six more tunes, including set-ending jams on "Bad Motor Scooter" (which Hagar first performed with his former group, Montrose) and Deep Purple's "Highway Star."

The rest of the set was made up of tunes from the band's debut album, due in June and also titled Chickenfoot. The tracks are as driving as you'd expect given the group's lineup, and the fans ate up songs such as the bluesy "Sexy Little Thing" ("She can drive and not get wasted/Stoner's dream on a Friday night"), the rocking "Oh Yeah" ("When I was a young man I slept around/When I turned 30, I settled down"), and the grungy "Bipolar."

All four musicians seemed to be having a blast, perhaps because El Corazon — capacity 807 — is smaller than the rooms they're used to playing. (They brought a good deal of their own arena-ready gear for the show, which sounded huge.) Both sets seemed well rehearsed, something Hagar hopes not to repeat too much, as he put it during the encore: "It feels like we've been together a long time," he said. "We don't like to rehearse &8212; well, Joe does ... But there'll come a time when Chickenfoot doesn't have to rehearse. We'll just come on and play."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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