PIKE 327 - CARNIVAL OF CHICKEN WIRE

PIKE 327 - CARNIVAL OF CHICKEN WIRE 26th installment of 2022 Everything played NOT by BUCKETHEAD. It's LIVE, duh! Total playing time 28 MINUTES and 41 SECONDS All instrumental as always! Yep, still true despite being a live album

Well i guess BUCKETHEAD is trying to cash in on some live recordings to replace all those stolen guitars that he lost in recent times. Suddenly a flood of live releases are finding their way out of the coop and for the first time BH has released several live releases simultaneously. Following the odd PIKE out album cover of "Live From A Boombox" comes another set of live numbers titled CARNIVAL OF CHICKEN WIRE.

This one features six tracks and keeps it under a half hour of playing time. A lot of these tracks have been featured on other live releases such as the feisty opening "Jordan" which seems to be a crowd pleaser. After the energetic opener BH slows the tempo down a bit with "The Interworld And The New Innocence" which emphasizes those famous echoey guitar sounds and then builds up steam to a bluesy rock shredding extravaganza. 
 "Redeem Team" picks up the pace again with a melodic guitar riff. The track picks up pace and becomes a crunchy alt metal rocker. "Toy Store" features a nice processed guitar effect sound. This one features some interesting technical workouts. It merges perfectly into another long time crowd pleaser, "Welcome To Bucketheadland" which is basically a BH anthem at this point. "Siege Engine" finishes this release off with an energetic guitar performance but the track itself is rather generic and monotonous.

Overall this is an OK live set but not as interesting as "Live Sprinkles." Basically the track selection is not that wonderful and although everything is interesting to hear in a live setting, i'm not a huge live album fan in the first place and BH doesn't do anything remarkable to distinguish from the studio recordings. It truly seems like cashing in is the modus operandi du jour. Oh well. Another PIKE i will never be revisiting.

2.5 rounded down