CHICKENFOOT: Hamburg, Copenhagen Shows Cancelled

CHICKENFOOT's sold-out shows in Hamburg (Große Freiheit, July 7) and Copenhagen (Vega, July 8) have been cancelled. The band's drummer, Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS) aggravated an old injury that had not healed while playing the Olympia in Paris last week and is since suffering from a tear of various tendons in the shoulder and upper arm/biceps. He had an MRI that revealed the injury and waited to see if he could play last week. After the band had already cancelled last week's Madrid show to allow Smith time for evaluation in Paris, he came to Italy hoping to play the remainder of the shows. After the weekend shows, Smith was in pain again and it was obvious that his condition is not good enough to continue without further medical attention and immediate rest. This is why this week's Hamburg and Copenhagen shows were cancelled to allow Chad more time to see specialists in London.

All recent shows have shown Satriani, Anthony, Hagar and Smith at top form, and with Smith being a very physical drummer who cannot play a show at 50%, it is very hard for him to hold back onstage. He is very sorry he cannot play for the German and Danish fans this week.

The band hopes to be back to play very soon presenting themselves at their best.

Fan-filmed video footage of CHICKENFOOT's performance at this year's Nova Rock festival, which was held June 19-21 on the Pannonia Fields in Burgenland, the easternmost federal state of Austria (near Nickelsdorf and the Hungarian and Slovak borders),can be viewed below.

CHICKENFOOT's self-titled debut album has sold 199,000 copies in the United States since its June 5 release. The LP is packaged in heat-sensitive artwork, which means when you put your hand on the CD inlay, photos of the band members are revealed behind the CHICKENFOOT band logo.

CHICKENFOOT first got together more than a year ago when they started jamming in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Although they called the band CHICKENFOOT at the time, guitarist Joe Satriani told The Pulse of Radio that nobody thought the name would stick. "Sammy's [Hagar] saying, 'Oh, you know, we can call it CHICKENFOOT,' and everybody laughs and says, 'Yeah, okay, it'll never be called CHICKENFOOT, of course, that's a horrible name.' And that's the way it was for about nine months, until finally someone said, 'You know, you can't change it now, everyone's calling you guys CHICKENFOOT.' So we wound up with that name, I think, quite by accident."

The band will launch its first major North American tour on August 2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, finishing up on September 5 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. This will be the group's first extensive run since completing a nine-date club jaunt last month.