A hard rock supergroup, Chickenfoot came out of a spontaneous on-strage collaboration between Sammy Hagar (formerly of Van Halen and Montrose, and a veteran solo artist), Michael Anthony (Hagar's onetime bandmate in Van Halen), Chad Smith (drummer with the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Joe Satriani (one of the leading guitar heroes of the '80s and '90s). While their brand of flashy, arena-friendly hard rock was believed to have fallen out of favor in the 21st century, Chickenfoot's self-titled debut album was a surprise commercial success in 2008, and confirmed that plenty of fans were still in the market for their brand of party-hearty guitar-fueled bombast. Best + Live is a two-disc collection that brings together tracks from the group's first two studio albums (2008's Chickenfoot and 2011's Chickenfoot III) and live tracks that originally appeared on the DVD Get Your Buzz On. For fans, the set also includes one new track, the previously unreleased "Divine Termination." © Mark Deming /TiVo

Supergroups are often motley groups seemingly formed at the end of an after-concert party but few are quite as strange as Chickenfoot, an endeavor featuring Van Halen's Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, guitar legend Joe Satriani, and drummer Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. These four musicians are tied together by their many years playing in the arena rock trenches, a circuit that doesn't necessarily yield common musical ground although it does lend its veterans a certain knack for pleasing crowds. This eagerness is evident on the band's eponymous 2009 debut, which should come as no surprise seeing that Sammy Hagar has never seen a party he couldn't rock, but this mentality doesn't quite jibe with Satriani's immaculate, tightly controlled playing. Satch always seems to want to burst out but can't help leaning on precision, a problem that's the polar opposite to Hagar's let-it-all-hang-out philosophy, and this dichotomy is mirrored in the rhythm section, where Anthony's chugging bass doesn't quite fill the gaps Smith leaves. All this means is that Chickenfoot's big picture is roughly in place but the pieces don't quite fit, but that doesn't stop the group from trying to force it, with Sammy sounding as awkward singing about south-of-the-border drug runners as Satriani does spinning off complicated riffs on party rockers. There's too much professionalism for this to be a trainwreck but the whole thing is rather laborious, with everybody working far too hard to have a good time. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Maybe the only surprising thing about Chickenfoot's critically dismissed 2009 debut was that anyone should have been surprised at its eventual commercial success. After all, there was just no way that America's average Joe classic rock consumer was going to resist spending all of that disposable beer money on a super-sized union between Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, and Chad Smith, no matter how meager its artistic rewards. Temptation embraced, the broth thickens with a second Chickenfoot LP -- cheekily named Chickenfoot III -- that offers much the same in terms of musical and intellectual stimuli (don't laugh) with its rather shameless though surely to-be-expected, exploitation of the vintage Van Hagar aesthetic. Love it or loathe it, said blueprint yields plenty of mainstream rock comfort food in the shape of muscular opener "Last Temptation," the subsequent, irresistible singalong "Alright Alright," and even the bluesier, acoustic-infused "Something Gone Wrong," among other tracks. And while some listeners may understandably take exception with Satriani's occasional overindulgence in EVH's legendary "brown sound" on cuts like "Lighten Up" and "Big Foot," the guitar hero's simultaneous willingness to mask his silver alien fret pyrotechnics for the betterment of simple, anthemic single "Different Devil," or the subdued yacht rocker "Come Closer" is perhaps the biggest endorsement of Chickenfoot's true status as a band, rather than yet another jumble of superstars jamming for their 401ks. Having said that, the ship has unfortunately and unquestionably sailed on Sammy Hagar's ability to convey a serious lyric with believable conviction (way too many waboritas and mas tequilas, Sammy, sorry bro), and so it's hard to reconcile his effort to recite earnest letters written by the down-and-unemployed with shrieks of "I need a job"! on the confusing "Three-Letter Word." Likewise, the sardonic "Dubai Blues" just isn't very funny when spewed through the mouth of a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist millionaire, but maybe we're thinking too hard here… After all, it's already been established that Chickenfoot III is an unapologetic exercise in classic rock nostalgia, take it or leave it, and at least it's honestly so -- unlike the latest Jane's Addiction or Pulp reunions…both of them such anti-corporate, anti-establishment indie rockers, clearly. Not! So judge not, indie rockers and other self-satisfied musical tribes: any way you slice it, the aging rock audience is hungry and, flawed as they may be, Chickenfoot are just the guys to feed them. © Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo

Download not available

Download not available