JIMMIE’S CHICKEN SHACK / VICTORY PARTY
6/01/07
PowerPlant Live
Baltimore, MD

Jimmie’s Chicken Shack is a well known Maryland based band, that’s had numerous line-up changes, been signed & dropped from major labels, & through it all, front man Jimi Haha still pushes his musical vision, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack with energy, intensity, & integrity!  JCS, along with Victory Road, played a free outdoor concert at Power Plant Live on June 1, 2007, & it was actually the first of a many free Friday concerts at the Power Plant Live area.

As far as the weather went, it was hot during the day, but it seemed to cool off just in time for happy hour, & in that general area, all of the bars have good happy hour specials, so it’s a sure bet that everyone’s in a good mood on Friday’s for sure, I mean not only was it the start of the weekend, but there was a FREE show with Jimmie’s Chicken  Shack!  As far as the crowd goes, when Victory Road began their set a little after 7 PM, the crowd was modest, but decent.  Victory Road are a mix of indie rock & alternative with some modern rock influences tossed in & the bands secret weapon is their drummer..that guy’s got some great timing & rhythm! 

I ran into LT, the singer from the band Hollo, who was there checking out the show & he was telling me about Hollo’s upcoming shows & the band will be releasing their CD very soon & there’s alot of things happening in the world of Hollo! 

It was actually pretty interesting, because when Jimmie’s Chicken Shack leader Jimi Haha took the stage, I honestly didn’t even recognize him at first because I remember him for his blonde dreadlocks, but he no longer has them & is sporting a short brown hairstyle that’s just very normal looking which kinda threw me at first because I was expecting the crazy looking dude with the dreads!  The band was a totally different line-up than what I remember from before....Matt Jones is on guitar & is a good addition to the band,  & Christian Valiente keeps the songs together on bass, while Jerome Maffeo keeps the groove going on the drums.  JCS actually mix up alot of musical style...I think “High” might be the bands heaviest song as well as their most well known song & amazing, they didn’t close with that one!  “Dropping Anchor” got some really good audience reaction, & there was even a Fugazi cover tossed in the bands set, but judging from that crowd, I have a feeling alot of them had no clue who Fugazi even were!

The most interesting thing that happened during JCS’s set was, during one particular song, Jimi Haha broke a guitar string, & rather than put the guitar down, or trade it for another guitar, Jimi decided to change the string onstage, while singing!  I mean that quite literally....Jimi pulled out a replacement E string & changed the string while singing & he didn’t miss one word either I might add!  If I hadn’t seen that, I would never have believed it, it was just kinda nutty, but also really cool! 

If you missed this show, you missed a really fun time...I might add too that Jimmie’s Chicken Shack played several new songs that haven't been released on a cd yet & they sounded great, so I’m actually really excited to hear the new JCS cd when it comes out!