Jimmie's Chicken Shack - Concert Review [D1 Music]

Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Alpha Sig Field Party @ Virginia Tech - 9/13/03

A Lesson in Organized Chaos: Nad Sets the Tone for the Ultimate College Concert.
Organized chaos is probably the best way to explain a Jimmie's Chicken Shack concert, specifically, the most recent one that I have attended at Virginia Tech. Jimmie's Chicken Shack is a band that is notorious for not practicing - often having new members of the band have their first "practice" be the first show with the member. This could be detrimental to some bands, who rely on strict regimines for practicing, yet somehow, Jimi HaHa, Derek, Casey, and at this show, Dave (from Maryland based Jepetto) seem to flourish.
To begin to set the situation, the sky had brought rain for the most part of the day, and there was reason to believe that the police would shut the show down for noise violations (which I am against the idea of a show being shut down, but the idea that it is too loud always excites me...). While the opening bands were on stage, the members of JCS were anxiously awaiting to take the stage, while drinking their drinks of choice, to get ready for the show. Relaxed and excited the band took the stage for a large supply of buzzing college students who are ready to either dance, mosh, or pass out...hopefully, this will set the scene for you.

Eyes from Front and Center: Valdyr Positions Herself in Prime Perspective.
Sound check begins, and nothing could have set the mood better for the a bunch of loud, drunk college students ready to get out some of our mid-semester frustrations. There we all were, in the middle of a crowd of people and beer, in a slight drizzle. Nad and his girlfriend hung back a bit, but as I was all for getting in the thick of things, I easily made my way up to the very front row as JCS took the stage.

And it Begins: Nad Relives the Experience
Taking the stage, the band immediately goes into a freeform jam that shows that their music would be more inclined to be like a reggae style mixed with Pink Floyd (which happened to be playing over the PA while the band set up gear) than the hard rock that they are famous for. After saying their hello's and thank you's to the crowds, the band was ready to put the softer reggae vibe as just an influence in their sound and allow the more aggressive head-bang-mosh-pit-drunken-swagger-dancing-induced music to begin.
Opening with "School Bus", a song quite apropriate for a setting that involves students, the band immediately showed that they have a much heavier edge. The crowd was excited and ready for more. After playing a few more songs, the band began to play what has recently become one of my favorite live songs, "Another Day". "Another Day" starts and sounds just like it was recorded on "Pushing the Salmonilla Envelope", however the song has recently been developing quite a jam during the breakdown. During this new extended breakdown, the guitar tech for JCS, who also happens to double as guitarist for other bands, and more notably, rapper for Jepetto, takes front stage along with guitarist for JCS, Casey. The song begins to segue into a song originally done by Jepetto, "Deciding Where the World Begins". This interlude brings Derek's bass to the foreground while the two rappers go back and forth while the crowd goes crazy.
In addition to this long jam, after playing the crowd-pleasing "Do Right", the band continues to jam on the raggae style space groove that brought Jimi HaHa to sing short snippets of Sublime's "Smoke Two Joints" proclaiming "that's what I do right...". Shortly thereafter leading into a few lines of Bob Marley's "One Love". Derek and Dave kept the groove right in the pocket while Jimi and Casey just did whatever felt good.
They continued on with their wonderfully chaotic show by going into songs such as "Lazy Boy Dash", which prompted many female members of the crowd to jump onstage and begin to dance for the rest of the audience (to which I think there were more people on stage than in the audience at this point in time), followed by "Milk" which featured another great breakdown featuring Casey and Mark Awesome rapping on top of a guitar/bass improv solo jam.

Another Edit: Valdyr Picks Up Where Nad Refuses to Tread
One of the reasons that I wanted to co-write this article with Nad is because he conveniently forgets to include some important information. Like the fact that he frequently gets the opportunity to play with JCS live. This concert was no exception; Jimi moved offstage to get a drink during the bridge of "Milk", and a few seconds later Nad had taken his place, recieving welcoming nods from Casey and Derek. I firmly believe that Nad might be JCS's biggest fan, and no one who has had the pleasure of hearing Nad play would doubt it. Nad picked up Jimi's guitar and jumped right on in with full force; Me, his girlfriend, and the rest of the crowd cheered as Nad grooved on. The unfortunate factor was that he still had my camera in his pocket at the time, or I would have gotten some great photos. Jimi soon returned to the stage and listened appreciatively for a few moments before taking his guitar back, and resuming with the show.

An Ending to an Evening: Nad Reflects the Closure
Rounding out the evening with "Let's Get Flat", the band went into their final last jam of the night, closing the show similarly to how they opened, with a soft, spacey, raggae-influenced jam, where Jimi once again prompted the band members to say their final goodbyes for the night, and the crowd rejoined them on the stage for a grooving "dance the night away" finish.
To close out, I would recommend for anyone who enjoys music to look into Jimmie's Chicken Shack. They have a song for anyone...with acoustic songs, and hard rocking songs, to pop ditties and spacey songs. They are currently in the studio recording their first new album due out in January, at which time it will have been almost 4 years since their last album Bring Your Own Stereo.