CHEVY METAL with DAVE GROHL and RAMI JAFFEE
on the Rock & Roll Pizza Stage
Conejo Valley Days Festival
Thousand Oaks, CA

May 9, 2015

Photos and writing by TourBusLive.com

No, kids – THIS AIN’T YOUR AVERAGE COVER BAND.  THIS is a cover band with GUTS.  You know – rock and roll at its finest.  And since the musicians are themselves rock stars from other bands, you might even forget that they didn’t actually write all those songs they are playing.  Sure, CHEVY METAL ‘covers’ songs that were written and performed by other bands, but when drummer Taylor Hawkins steps away from his day job (in that other band called the Foo Fighters) and gets behind his drum kit to jam with his long-time buddy bassist WILEY HODGDEN and fellow Fighter of Foo CHRIS SHIFLETT (taking over his old spot briefly from usual six-string shredder Mick Murphy), an entirely new type of band is formed – a band who just happens to play songs you already know ALL the lyrics to.  So maybe this cover band should just be called a motherf**king JAM BAND.  Seriously – if you weren’t already enjoying the carnival this past Saturday at the 59^th Annual CONEJO VALLEY DAYS festival, then CHEVY METAL surely was about to take you on the ride of your life.

And just when we didn’t think it could get any better, the Twitter feeds began blowing up around us as people spotted Taylor’s boss DAVE GROHL jumping on a big slide with his kids prior to show time.  Yes, Chevy Metal’s sometimes fourth member of the band – who occasionally shows up to plug in and provide a little back-up for his friends – was about join CHEVY METAL on the ROCK & ROLL PIZZA STAGE at Conejo Valley Days.  And if three Foo Fighters weren’t enough – Dave also brought along RAMI JAFFEE – keyboardist for the Foo Fighters (and formerly of The Wallflowers) to round out the fun on this most excellent afternoon gig.

Amid banter (and a few expletives) about the carnival’s fried Twinkies and stories about seeing Queen and AC/DC for the first time, the band coasted through the music of classic bands we all love – including The Cars, the Faces, Bryan Adams, and even Billy Joel!  And what really gets the crowd going – every single time – is when the guys break out the Van Halen tunes (the band soared through “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “I’m The One”, but unfortunately had to skip “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” when Hawkins cut his finger on his crash cymbal during an upstroke and began to bleed – he immediately opted to glide over the more ambitious VH song and landed on the next selection – the much mellower Stones song “Miss You”).  Well, wounded or not, this ‘cover band’ really makes you forget that they didn’t actually write these songs you’ve been hearing for more than three decades.  CHEVY METAL totally puts the Rawk back in Rock!!!