Buckethead - Showcase Live - Foxboro MA, August 30, 2011

Buckethead
Tuesday August 30, 2011
Showcase Live, Foxboro MA

Support – Wolff

Sort of always been curious about seeing Buckethead live. The guy has played in the jam band area, to Guns and Roses. His mask, long hair and trademark KFC bucket on his head all add to the fun, curiosity and what have you.

I landed the tickets for free the day of the show, but after seeing him I'd have paid, and will be willing to do so in the future. Free is good, but hey can't always be free right?

I arrived at the club around 8:40 and the opener is on. Its this dude called Wolff. I kid you not, its a solo dude playing the tuba. He is looping it through all these pedals and stuff. It was freaking really cool..like really cool. Can't be late the next chance I get to see him live.

Time passes and I realize that there is just a line of Amps up on the stage. No guitars but noticeably no drums. The crew gets together whatever needs to get ready and the large movie screen backdrop starts to play. It is some odd (and really horrible) looking monster movie. One of those, so bad its good creature double feature types. This would play for the duration of the show. It wasn't sidetracking and at times I thought/wondered if he was trying to play a soundtrack for it.

Buckethead arrives on stage with two large robot like hands. He gestures towards, and over the audience. He then removes the gloves and straps on his Les Paul. For the next solid 40 minutes he doesn't seem to even slow down. Opening with “Jordan” he set the tone quickly. The audience was eating it up. The backing track(s) all night packed a wallop. It was freaking LOUD in the club. His stuff was all sequenced well enough he hardly had to even step off the front of the stage to make adjustments.

He moved around the stage a fair amount. When he did stop he'd often do these robotic like movements. The combination of the mask, hair and bucket make for quite the sight.

Buckethead just wails. He opened with "Jordan" and basically tore the place down. The sequencers and all that were his "backing" band. He moved around a lot, and does this cool robot stance when he plays from time to time.

After a bit he takes a break from the guitar and does this 2-3 minute Nunchuck demo. He is pretty good at whipping those things around. The beat is heavy and he gets to the center of the stage and just goes crazy. He ends that and grabs a bag of toys and starts handing them out. The audience down front seems to be his attention as only one toy appears to be “thrown” and even that is not tossed very far.

Once done playing Santa he picks up the bass and plays that for about10 minutes or so, then goes back to the guitar. Yes, he is pretty darn crazy on the bass two.

He has two buttons on his guitar that make it sound really choppy. It is called a “kill-switch” and it cuts the sound of based of him pressing the button. He is so comfortable and accomplished with what it can do he offers the guitar to fans to press from time to time.

He did tease a few songs, including the Star Wars theme and Imperial Death March. Also was a tease of an Anthrax song. I didn't notice it, but a few people around me said it was an Anthrax tune.

Toward the end of the show he seemed to be having a tech issue. It ended up being his wireless, so he switched to wired and wrapped up the show. He didn't wave, didn't say thanks of course and it was just sorta "over".

All in all, Pretty freaking cool. The one little thing I'd like to see/hear from him is a little cleaner solos. Its run through so many effects and distorted/delayed etc it can make anyone sound good, but the dudes hands are MASSIVE and he plays about as fast as anyone I've ever seen live.

If anyone has the full set, please post in the comments.