Fighting His Own Good Fight, for the Holidays

When last we caught Santa Barbara-bred rock-star-next-door Chris Shiflett on a local stage, it was before 4,500 excitable Foo Fighters fans at the Santa Barbara Bowl in September. Booked on short notice, the crowd clamored and connived their way into the hot ticket show, the first time the band had played the Bowl in 15 years. The night was powerful and also poignant, the first tour since the tragic 2022 passing of their legendary drummer Taylor Hawkins. Hawkins was paid homage with Dave Grohl’s epic song “The Teacher,” from the band’s strong new album But Here We Are, played late in the set.

This weekend, on Friday and Saturday night, December 22-23, Shiflett — the Foo guitarist since 1999 — appears in solo mode at SOhO, for much smaller but nonetheless full-house conditions, for the third annual Hometown Holiday Hoedown. Although Shiflett now lives in Los Angeles, he maintains ties with friends, family, and a heap of fans in Santa Barbara, and is making the Christmas-timed gig a tradition.

Sitters-in will be in the packed house. Shiflett says, “We have a fantastic lineup this year — Jim Lindberg from Pennywise, Joey Cape from Lagwagon, Tom Curren, Gandy Dancer, [and] my old pal Marko from Sugarcult spinning records.”

Shiflett returns home with a new album in tow, Lost at Sea, another fine rock-meets-alt-country gem. His bandography includes early local bands Face to Face and Lost Kittenz, the popular Bay Area band No Use for a Name and now one of the world’s highest-profile post-grunge bands, anointed with a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame status in 2021.

During his busy year on tour with the Foo, we checked in with the hometown hero to get the latest from his own expanding musical front.

Happy to hear about your return to SOhO with the annual Hometown Holiday Hoedown. Three times makes it a bona fide tradition, doesn’t it? Can you see this carrying on into the foreseeable future? Yeah, totally. It’s actually the fourth year of doing a holiday show in S.B., but the first one was at my buddy Pat Housh’s bar out in Goleta [the now-closed Mercury Lounge]. Every year’s been an evolution, so doing two nights this year at SOhO felt like the right idea this time around. The whole reason I started it was to have a good excuse to be in S.B. at the holidays, so hopefully we can continue to do these shows for a long time.

Last year at SOhO, you had to rely on your wits and resourcefulness when your bandmates were taken out of the picture, by COVID, I recall. But you really made the show work, and rock. Was that one of those “oh shit” moments, which you then nicely transcended? It was! We’d never played as a two piece until that run of shows, but y’know, necessity is the mother of invention, and we weren’t gonna cancel the Hoedown regardless of COVID or anything else. If you recall, the first year at Soho was in the middle of the Omicron wave and only about half the people that bought tickets showed up.

Fingers crossed this year we don’t have any issues, but the show will go on regardless.

Speaking of memorable local showings in the past year — September’s Foo Fighters Bowl show was one of the great shows in Santa Barbara this year. I was actually surprised it had been so long, 15 years, since your last Bowl show, partly because the band has had various local connections and appearances over the years. Was it an emotional and homecoming-style night for you, in particular? Honestly, that show at the Bowl was one of my favorite Foo gigs ever. It was a perfect night — lots of friends and family — and we’d been on the road for a few months already, so the band was tight and we could just play and not over think it.  When I was younger, I would have been pretty stressed just dealing with the guest list, but I was relaxed and in the moment, with a smile on my face all night.

I saw the Foos at the Bowl back before I was in the band, and I grew up a stone’s throw from there on Salinas Street, went to S.B. High and Jr. High right down the road, so it just felt like home. On top of all that, there was some good swell that week, and Rincon was breaking, so everything lined up just right.

I was really impressed with your new album, Lost at Sea. Can you tell me about this one came together, and if you had any concept guiding the project? Thank you. The whole thing actually started with an idea I had to not make a record. I was gonna’ record songs with a bunch of different producers and put out single tracks. But once I got in the studio with Jaren, that all changed.  From the first session I knew we had to make a whole album, so I sent him every song I’d written around then, and we got to work.

You really find a sweet spot between crunchy rock sounds and attitudes and alt country elements, especially on tunes like “Carrie Midnight Texas Queen” and “Weigh You Down” (love that uber-baritone guitar part). Is that blend of rock and country something that has really grabbed your musical interest in the course of your so far five-album solo life? Yeah, for sure. I grew up on classic rock, heavy metal, etcetera, so big crunchy guitar tones are my comfort zone. Country music came a bit later, and I always say I came in through the side door, so my tunes tend to be a little too rough around the edges to exactly label ‘em country. I like tapping into the West Coast tradition going back to the Bakersfield Sound and Buck [Owens] and Merle [Haggard] and all those artists.

But I don’t really think about any of that stuff when I’m writing and recording. I just do what I do and see where it lands.

We can’t help but hear the opening tune, “Dead and Gone,” and think of the loss of Taylor Hawkins, the longtime Foo Fighters drummer — and one of rock’s greats. Was he on your mind, in part, in writing that song, and have you come to terms with his absence, at least to some degree, at this point? Naw, I actually wrote that song back in 2020 and recorded it in the spring of 2021, so it was way before Taylor passed away. The people I’m singing about are old friends I grew up with in Santa Barbara — hence the Bottle Shop reference. I knew that by the time we released it people would read things into the lyrics that weren’t intended, but it was also one of the core tunes on the record so I didn’t want to leave it off. You can’t control how people interpret your music once you put it out.

Can you tell me about the upcoming Hoedown? Will we see assorted friends, local and otherwise, onstage? Well, we have a fantastic lineup this year — Jim Lindberg from Pennywise, Joey Cape from Lagwagon, Tom Curren, Gandy Dancer, [and] my old pal Marko from Sugarcult spinning records both nights. It’s a really good mix of old and new friends, Santa Barbara legends, punk rock, rock and roll, Americana, country music, etcetera.

Haven’t really figured out the setlist, but once I get home from tour I’ll start bugging people to jump up and play some songs with us. You never know who might show up. And hopefully we’ll get Tom to paddle block for us all at the ‘Con [laughs] …

I see you’re doing more touring as Chris Shiflett on your upcoming calendar. Do you like that idea of balancing out Foo Fighters and your own musical identity? It’s good for my soul to get back in the van and go grind it out, try to win over a crowd.  My solo band is pretty different sonically than what we do in Foos, so it gives me space to stretch out and play different, try new things, sing more.

It’s funny how when it’s your own little side band, selling a couple hundred tickets feels like you just sold out the Forum, y’know?  It’s that thrill of the unknown. Are people gonna show up?  Do they know my tunes? Can we get the dance floor grooving? It’s different every night and I love it.

Anything else you’d like to tell the good folks in Santa Barbara? C’mon Santa Barbarians — dust off your cowboy boots and we’ll see ya at the Soho soon!

Chris Shifllett returns to SOhO December 22-23 for his Third Annual Holiday Hoedown. For additional information, see sohosb.com.