PIKE 326 - LIVE FROM THE BOOMBOX

PIKE 326 - LIVE FROM THE BOOMBOX 25th installment of 2022 Everything played NOT by BUCKETHEAD. It's LIVE, duh! Total playing time 28 MINUTES and 48 SECONDS All instrumental as always! Yep, still true despite being a live album

I absolutely knew once the floodgates were opened for live releases to come out as PIKEs that there would be an incessant flow and it turns out i was correct. PIKE 326 has emerged as another live release titled LIVE FROM THE BOOMBOX. The album cover is notable for falling completely out of character from the comic book PIKE design. This simply features a photo with a BUCKETHEAD and a BOOMBOX photoshopped and posing on a slap of concrete on the shore.

Unlike the previous "Live Sprinkles" which was a staggering 50 minutes long, LIVE FROM THE BOOMBOX clocks in at a standard PIKE running time of around 30 minutes which is personally all i really have an attention span for PIKEs these days so thank dog for that. This one features only six tracks but there are some crowd pleases on board here. The picks are mostly out of the alternative metal camp with "Big Sur Moon" and "Flare" leading the way. BH feistily performs with passion.

"Gory Head Stump" is a bouncy fun number with an incessant bouncing groove that also keeps the energy high however it wouldn't be a BH live release without a slower number, in this case a classic live number in his playbook called "Soothsayer." Although it starts out mellow it climaxes with a scorching guitar solo. Likewise "Ghose of Broken Eggs" dishes out some psychedelic wah-wah pedal effects in the beginning and slowly ratchets up the blues rock intensity. The concluding "Fountains of the Forgotten" closes the PIKE with a bit of energetic heft with squealing guitar licks and heavy metal fortitude.

This is a decent LIVE PIKE that features some excellent material from BUCKETHEAD's vast canon but at the same time there is nothing super compelling about this release either. It's an OK half hour of live energy but not something that beckons a return visit either. Nice but only good and not much else. Considering the number of LIVE PIKEs coming out i'm sure there will be a whole lot more where this came from.