You may know him as the frontman of Extreme, or even as Van Halen’s third lead vocalist, but most don’t know that Gary Cherone, along with his older brother, Mark Cherone, have joined together and formed the band, SlipKid. Now, SlipKid is more than a cover band, it’s a musical journey that celebrates the music of The Who. On one very special Friday night, Gary, Mark, and the rest of the band, took the audience at Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, MA on this magical, musical journey.
Before our journey with SlipKip began, singer-songer, Charlie Farren, took the stage as the opener for the show. Personally, I was so excited about this because I love Charlie and I could not think of anyone better to open the show. Charlie is most known for his work with The Joe Perry Project, but later was in his own band, Farrenheit. During his set, he performed songs he’s recently written for a new project and also shared stories from his “long-legged” life.
The reason why I think Charlie was the perfect opener for this show is because he knows exactly how to make the audience have fun. Song after song, he never stops smiling and you can just tell that he’s having a blast on stage. His positive energy is so contagious, you can’t help but feel happy when watching him. He is also very interactive with the audience and makes them part of his performance. A true performer right there.
After Charlie’s set, the lights dimmed and you started to hear “Join Together” playing on speaker. It gets louder and louder building this huge anticipation and that was how SlipKid made their grand entrance. Before you knew it, they were on stage performing “I Can’t Explain”, a fabulous choice to kick off their set. From then on out, they did not stop and kept going song after song with no break in between. The only time they stopped was maybe about halfway through their set because they “rocked a little too hard” and knew the audience needed a break more than they did. It was true, I did need a break after everything I was witnessing.
The whole night was filled with all of The Who’s greatest hits. The only songs they performed that weren’t really huge hits were “Tommy Can You Hear Me?” and “Long Live Rock”, which that song closed the show. Mark even sang lead on a few songs! About halfway through the set, SlipKid left the stage and the room went dark. Just like in the beginning of the show, The Who starts playing over the speakers, but this time it’s “I am the Sea” that is playing. Eventually as the song built up, the lighting was just going crazy and you just knew something magical was going to happen. SlipKid then came back for their second set and followed “I am the Sea” with “the Real Me”, just like how it plays on Quadrophenia.
Gary Cherone in my opinion is one of the most underrated frontmen in music history. Not only can he sing any song known to man, but how he performs is so unique. The way he moves on stage, the way he interacts with the audience, the way he connects with the people in the front row, a lot of frontmen don’t have that but Gary has it down so perfectly to where he’s using up every inch of stage that is made available to him. From jumping off the drum kit to getting on his knees and holding hands with the people in the front row, it’s mesmerizing to watch him perform.
Mark was even running around the stage and jumping off the drum kit, too. You could very easily tell that they were brothers and if you didn’t know that going into the show, it didn’t take you long to figure it out. They just had that sibling chemistry when they were performing and interacting with each other on stage.
At the very end during the encore, something happened that I have NEVER seen happen at a show before. But before that, during the show I noticed that there just so happened to be an empty table right at the front of the stage. Didn’t think much of it other than it was a weird coincidence. So fast forward to the end, Gary was at the very edge of the stage singing away, like one does, and then he dropped to knees. Then all of a sudden he stops singing and just flops right onto that empty table. It did not stop there. He kept doing this over and over and was throwing himself over the table, chairs, and even the people. It was like he became possessed and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was doing this on purpose or if something serious was going on. But, of course he was fine and continued to sing literally right in the audience. Pretty epic.
They truly celebrate the music of The Who.
SlipKid played over 20 songs and performed almost two hours of non-stop music. Now, this was a seated show but there were many well deserved standing ovations. The band was just incredible and was really fun to watch. SlipKid mostly plays in the New England area since that’s where these guys are from, but I would love to see them eventually become big enough to venture out all over the country. They’re a must see act, especially if you love The Who. If you can’t see The Who live, or even if you can, I would definitely check this show out if you get the chance. They truly celebrate the music of The Who.
