ON THE ROAD: Chickenfoot
VETERANS OF THE ROCK SCENE
A SUPERGROUP IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD, AMERICAN ROCK BAND CHICKENFOOT KNOWS WHAT IT TAKES TO FILL A VENUE WITH ENERGY. IT DOESN’T GET MUCH MORE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL THAN A LINE-UP COMPRISING FORMER VAN HALEN MEMBERS SAMMY HAGAR AND MICHAEL ANTHONY, GUITAR ICON JOE SATRIANI AND STAR DRUMMER KENNY ARONOFF. KEEN TO SEE THE ALL STAR BAND IN ACTION AND MEET THE HARDWORKING CREW, TPi’S ZOE MUTTER ATTENDED THE SHOW IN TILBURG, THE NETHERLANDS.
Fans congregated at Tilburg’s 013, waiting in eager anticipation in the crammed to capacity venue for a performance from some of the greatest legends from rock music’s hall of fame. The show was part of what Production Manager, Paul Binder, described as a warm-up tour before Chickenfoot head out on the road again in May with a full-scale show. When TPi saw the rockers perform in The Netherlands, their sold-out tour in support of new album Chickenfoot III was drawing to a close - having already played a selection of dates in the US, the UK and Europe, the band had one more date in Düsseldorf, which was being filmed for longrunning German series Rockpalast. Binder has been with Chickenfoot since
the very beginning and saw the band come together through a series of impromptu jam sessions at vocalist Sammy Hagar’s Mexico- based club Cabo Wabo. He said: “I’ve been
60 • TPi FEBRUARY 2012
with Sammy in different capacities since 1998 before becoming Production Manager in 2003. I helped him build the studio we used to record the demo for the first Chickenfoot record and the whole second Chickenfoot album. I’ve seen it all evolve and we have a great band and production crew.” On the recent tour, Kenny Aronoff took
over drumming duties for Chad Smith while he toured with Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the same way that choosing the right musician to take up the drumsticks was important, so was selecting the production team. Explained Binder: “Everyone who works with us has to have a really good attitude so we all gel. The crew we have now is down to years of honing out the right people. As it’s a team effort on our tour, I try to hire people who will work outside of their job and help other members of the crew and a lot of the guys have been with me for a long time.”
However, it’s not all been down to the
people on tour - preparation has been at the centre of a smooth running production, with tech days planned at each venue to allow kit to be checked thoroughly. Binder added: “I wouldn’t be able to do my job without my production assistant Kenny Jensen either and the companies that handle the logistical side in terms of bussing and trucking - Horizon and Coach Service - have been amazing in bringing the whole tour together.”
MICROPHONE EXPERIMENTATION Mixing for some of the music industry’s major players for the past 27 years has allowed A-list Audio Engineer, Michael ‘Ace’ Baker, to get FOH audio down to a fine art. Instead of taking the traditional route into the live music business by going through audio companies, Ace came up through the clubs, mixing at The House of Blues for a decade. The time he spent working
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88