CHICKENFOOT – Best + Live (Album Review)

Chickenfoot – Best + Live

eOne Music

March 10th, 2017

“Why” – Bakko

Don’t think for a $econd I don’t under$tand why.  But seriously.  Why?  I love almost everything about Chickenfoot.  The name.  How they came up with it.  The fact that they are a “Super-Group” without a member of Kings-X.  Probably the “superist” since the Highwaymen.  And can anyone deny that no singer in rock history with his chops has aged as well as Sammy Hagar?  They released two amazing records that matched expectations not seen in the Super-Group genre since Audioslave.

Amazing as those two Chickenfoot records are I would recommend spending just a bit more and getting the two studio albums over this.  The packaging of the CD’s for those alone is worth it.  I’ll admit.  Their songs have a “you can sort them in any order” quality to them.  But there aren’t that many of them.  Why not just own all 21 songs the Foot has released instead of the 11 that some dick picked for you on this compilation?

A band of this nature with only two records has no business releasing a “Best of” and they know it.  This is a total cash grab.  A live record?  Fine.  Throw the garbage bonus track on that.  Which brings us to prize at the bottom of this Cracker Jack box.  A new song.  “Divine Termination”.  It’s not a bad song.  But it’s also not a “buy songs you already own just to own this song” good.  It’s “It think I’ll just download that song and not the whole record on iTunes” good.

The whole “Here’s a greatest hits and a new song” approach seems dated.  I know they are all old timers in the industry at this point, but I wouldn’t have categorized any of them as oblivious.  And of course there is a deluxe edition.  The “Deluxe Bonus Super Foot Of Chicken Sammy Slam” (unofficial working title) edition comes with 3 extra live tracks.  I’m all for deluxe editions.  Just make it worth it.  Not sure this does.

What about the live tracks?  I’m sad to report they sound like a high quality bootleg from the soundboard.  Which helps the price point I’m sure.  But it’s not a great listen unless you are really into that kind of thing.

When the weakest link in your band is a guy named Michael Anthony, you are in a pretty fucking good band.  Better than this product good.  Maybe Sammy or Joe Satriani recently ran into Gene Simmons and some of his marketing “Genius!” rubbed off on them but Chickenfoot is better than this.   Purchase at you own risk.  And in these times of dire record sales, does any member of this band deserve your hard earned money for a product this vapid?

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bakko@decibelgeek.com