John 5 Back In Chicago Again

John 5 and the Creatures

Live @ Reggies Chicago

April 16th 2017 

Review by: Jake Warkel

Photography by: Jake Warkel


What more can you ask for spending this Easter Day with my family and now spending the night with John 5 and the Creatures here at Reggies, Chicago.  I’ve been looking forward to this show for months now as John 5 will not be around Chicago again until Open Air Chicago July 14th with Rob Zombie.

Many of you know John 5 is a instrumental guitarist who performs his instrumental material from his solo albums when he’s performing on his solo tours, for those who were expecting a typical rock show forget it. John 5 is out on this 2017 tour promoting his new album John 5 and the Creatures “Season of the Witch”.

John 5

  Tonight's rock show involves a talented, finger picking, guitar picking, finger tapping, virtuoso, with so many diverse styles that makes John 5 a one of a kind. The crowd is filling in and getting anxious and its definitely a diverse crowd being a 17 yrs and older show.   I’m always glad to see some younger fans showing interest and getting involved in the music world.

Stage is now set for the one and only John 5 and the Creatures with intro music playing and out of nowhere John 5 is shredding “Guitars Tits and Monsters”off the new album “Season of the Witch”.  Yes he did it with a lit up mouth piece in his mouth like he had done a year ago last time John 5 played Reggies but again has instantly grabbed the crowd within seconds of playing the first song of the night.

The fans really got a shot of Adrenalin with the next 2 songs “Flight of the Vulcan Kelly” and “Six Hundred and Sixty Six pickers in the Hell Ca.” both those songs have the energy and mystical wow factors that make these fans really admire the great John 5.  The performance “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” is still currently one of my favorites off of “Season of the Witch” which was spot on like I was listening to the album.

"This is my Rifle" from his album "Careful with that Axe" just kicked ass with the arpeggios and tapping hammer-on pull offs. From there John 5 slowed things down a bit with “Jiffy Jam” and then with a bit more tempo went into “Hell Haw”.

John 5 knows how to mix it up because now he hit’s us with “Season of the Witch” that grabs you by the throat and continues too with “Portrait of Sidney Sloan”.  John 5 gets heavy with “First Victim” from “The devil Knows My Name” John 5’s guitar solo just left these fans in amazement, he’s so spot-on.  John 5 has these fans speechless one after another with these next 3 songs from the new album “Season of the Witch”“The Black Grass Plague”, “Behind the not Love”, “Making Monsters” I find amusement every time when I hear “Beat It” played on guitar because of those that attempt to play it just suck at playing it.  But John 5 plays that song as close to Eddie Van Halen as you can get.

It’s amazing Eddie Van Halen restructured the middle part of Beat It and in about ten minutes came up with one of the most well known guitar solos of all time and done it for free no less. John 5 told the crowd how thankful he was for the support and how he loves Chicago and there was no better place to end this tour than right here in Chicago.

The encore not encore song the last song of the night since John 5 does not believe in encores as John 5 explains to crowd then plays a “Medley” of songs Hot for Teacher, Ain’t Talkin’ bout Love, ?, Cat Scratch Fever, Seek and Destroy, Man in the Box, Thunder Kiss 65, South of Heaven,Was Made For Lovin' You, ?, Roxanne, Limelight, Kashmir, Beautiful People, and Killing in the Name Of. The medley was very well executed and sounded amazing.

John 5 and the Creatures performance was well perceived by the audience tonight. No one went home disappointed tonight whats so ever. The Chicago kid Ian Ross who currently resides in Hollywood California was solid on the bass tonight just an a amazing bassist for a young cat, super talented and a great find years ago for John 5. Playing on drums tonight was Logan Miles Nix a well rounded drummer that can play so many styles so well which makes him a perfect touring drummer and most importantly a superb time keeper for John 5. Logan just nailed it tonight behind his set and was brilliant. John 5 killed tonight with his pull offs, hammer ons, finger tapping, arpeggios, triplets, and balls out shredding as well as John 5’s country flair thrown in as well. If you have never seen John 5 live please go do so you will be amazed and there is nothing better than witnessing his live performance.

Also John 5, Chicago thanks you for spending Easter with us and most importantly thank your family for sharing you with us.




Band Members: John 5 guitar, Ian Ross bass and Logan Miles Nix drums

SETLIST
1) Guitars Tits and Monsters *
2) Flight of the Vulcan Kelly
3) 666 pickers in the hell Ca
4) Here's to the Crazy Ones *
5) This is my rifle
6) Jiffy Jam (Jerry Reed cover)
7) Hell Haw I.G.R *
8) Season of the Witch *
9) Portrait of Sidney Sloan
10) First Victim
11) Guitar solo
12) The Black Grass Plague *
13) Behind the not Love *
14) Making Monsters *
15) Beat It (Michael Jackson cover)
16) Medley


WEB SITE     http://www.John-5.com
Twitter     https://twitter.com/john5guitarist
Facebook     https://www.facebook.com/john5official
YouTube     https://www.youtube.com/user/john5officialYT
Instagram     https://www.instagram.com/john5official/

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