Hangin' with Mr. HaHa

I’m not a fan of Jimmie’s Chicken Shack. It’s not that I have anything against them; I just never really cared to listen to more than what was on the radio. That was back in 1999 when their single “Do Right” off the album “Bring Your Own Stereo” was getting airtime nationwide. Since then, they just sort of disappeared, and I never gave them a second thought.

So when I heard that Jimmie’s Chicken Shack was heading to Martinis in Cape Coral, I was curious to see what they had been up to. Accompanying The Shack was Tampa’s Clenchfist and Ft. Myers’ Code Zero, making for a brief but exciting lineup.

“Cheers,” toasted lead singer Jimi HaHa after taking the stage around midnight. He downed his first of many drinks for the evening and launched into “Dropping Anchor,” off of Jimmie’s Chicken Shack’s first album. The band’s drinking remained a constant throughout the night (shots of Patrón being their drink of choice), but the well-inebriated crowd didn’t appear to mind.

Photo by Bart Zino

Jimi HaHa: Guitar Hero?

Musically, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack is really difficult to place. They span the musical spectrum, from heavy and aggressive (“High,” “Blood”) to the mindlessly poppy (“Do Right,” “Smiling”) to coolly reggae. Halfway through “Do Right” the band digressed into “Smoke Two Joints” and a handful of Bob Marley covers, announcing afterward that whoever could name the author of “Smoke Two Joints” would win something.

“Kenny Loggins!” someone called out. Not quite. For the record, the answer was The Toyes (everyone knows Sublime’s version, but it’s not the original).

While JCS never actually sounded “bad,” they were definitely lacking something. Their ample set list included music from old albums as well as new material, but the band looked bored, and after a while, so was I. On stage, they had a tendency to stand in place and rarely moved around. The only breaks took the form of drinking or HaHa saying a few words about the next song on the set list.

That’s not to say the whole night was a waste. On the contrary, the two openers for the evening were what really made the show. Though quite different in their musical philosophies, both Clenchfist and Code Zero delivered solid performances that could have very easily stood on their own.

Photo by Bart Zino

Dueling guitars!

Clenchfist had the envious job of starting the night off. Rather than singing from the stage, lead singer Steve Bruno preferred the company of the fans in the pit, at one point standing on a chair in the middle of the floor. Though I had my doubts about being able to sit through an entire metal act, Clenchfist had excellent stage presence, drawing moshers only three songs into their set and constantly chatting it up with the crowd.

“I gotta say there’s a lot of class here in Cape Coral,” Bruno said. “The men look like they have money.”

“Yeah right!” someone shouted back to a round of laughter before Bruno exploded into another song. It might just be me, but metal seems to be more tolerable when it’s live. Or maybe the men of Clenchfist just know what they’re doing.

Drastically changing the tempo were pop punk rockers Code Zero, who also delivered a solid set from start to finish. Like Bruno, lead singer Eric refused to keep still, alternating between his microphone and the floor, at one point donning a military helmet and swinging the mic stand into the audience. Code Zero’s performance was so energetic that by the time they left the stage I was wishing their set had been longer, especially considering Jimmie’s disappointing finale.

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