Hi!

OK...time is flying right by.

We are ready, well, I think as ready as we can be for show #1. You always expect things to have their moments right away live.

My voice felt a little tired yesterday. Like I said last week...I can't sing 5 hour shows!

I may just sing through without the high and heavy stuff today...ne sense impressing the walls of rehearsal and risk straining it for Thur!

Mr Morris came down last night. He sounded amazing as usual! We have some cool stuff worked out for this show!

Working on the details for a European tour in June. If all goes well, I should make an announcement on this very soon!

The next 2 days will be totally nuts...so expect a few short posts...I will write a full report on Fri., but I just have too much to do now!

Talk to you soon!

C

Well...this is what I will say tomorrow...

Rehearsal went great today...it will be the final one. I am resting my voice. Igor gave me the frickin' flu...funny thing is I felt great yesterday and my voice was rough...today I felt like crap and my voice was 95%...I dunno. I quit trying to figure it out!

The set is cool. It was so tough to decide on the songs...plus I did not want to kill poor Nick!

I think it comes in right at around 90 mins...I dunno...

Munsey stopped by tonite, we are doing another mailing to radio for PMO.

The Butcher CD's should be available on the site soon...at the shows too!

I will have Faces and Music Man CD's at the shows also!

I want to thank David at Peavey once more! I am set up with amps for the shows and got another Rotor guitar today! A really cool cherry sunburst one!

I also want to thank Hugh, Paul and everyone at Korg for hooking me up with the new Big Ben Overdrive! I love this thing.

Not long now....I really can't wait to get one under the belt and see what happens!

I need sleep!

Goodnight!

C

To eat breakfast!

Well...you know the other stuff..."Scorch the blah, blah..."

Need to get into the city by 2. Butcher CD's were supposed to be in from Greece...I think they are floating around in UPS hell somewhere...

Well...not much to say right now, I think you know why.

Thanks for all of the support and I will see you tonite!

If I don't see you, you will hear about it for sure!

Let's get ready to rumble....

C

ps It is too early to even tell if I feel better....

Hi guys...

Show went well...was a lot of fun. Lots was a big blurr because the day went by so quick...

I left my new frickin' stage jacket at the club by accident...I hope I can get it tomorrow!

I will write about the whole day then.

The bands all did great...it was a pleasure to watch them and be a part of it.

My monitors were interesting...besides the fact that I could not hear my vocals or my guitar...everything else was fine!

Good Night!

C

Hi...

Had to wake to do some biz in Europe...

Last night's set list...

Alas (CD)

Faces
Edge Of Darkness
Remember
God Damn War
Saddamize - w Paul Morris and Mark Wood
Amazing - Grace w Morris

Acoustic...

Bridges - w/ Paul, Paul and Mark Wood
Music Man - w/Paul Morris

The Mold
Fade Into The X
PMO
Preludio
Abandoned

Encore -

Sirens
Power Of The Night

OK...

I figured you all would be waiting for this!

So...here it goes. I am writing this Friday night. I have been sleeping on and off all day. Jeff had a session with Mark Wood, he is sick and now in bed. i think Igor's flu was a lot worse than we thought!

I woke up Thursday and did my usual routine. I checked business mail...dealt with the daily disasters. I did not really sleep well because I was very anxoius for the show. I got up in the middle of the night and spoke with Brandon, who was suffering from a similar insomnia.

Raymie had arrived the night before, we went over some of my guitar information and took inventory of cables, strings...etc...we also did a last minute vocal rehearsal.

Thursday morning everyone was awake. Igor was just getting in...like usual! We were all ging to leave for BBKings at 1PM. Things got loaded up in our vehicles and my friend Butch's truck..you know...beach story Butch...we all headed to the city.

It was really cool to turn the corner onto 42nd Street and see my name in lights! Yup...the marquee had Chris Caffery and Alex Skolnick on it! It was a very surreal feeling. There were some fans outside...board members too! The guys from Quebec! We loaded out the stuff we had and I left with Butch to go to SIR and pick up our amps for the night!. Thanks to Dave E. and Peavey for my amps and my new guitar...I got a new Sunburst Rotor on Wed. It just needed some work before it was stage ready...changing it to my exact specs. I had to sign out the gear and arrange for SIR to pick it up after the show.

When we dropped the amps off I had Butch follow me to the parking garage. Bad idea....I accidentally made a illegal right turn...Butch accidentally followed! I lost sight of him in my rear view mirror...he was pulled over....another ticket...but not mine. Fucking stupid...you can't make a right turn onto a one way going right...assholes...just another way to scam people for $. PISSES ME OFF!

We returned back and got ready for soundcheck. Butch and his wife left with Elissa to go get some food...I had not eaten much! But I was in fighting weight and that is a good feeling! the stage was up and ready pretty quick. The new scrims looked amazing. The WARPED CD is the theme! War will be carrying on for a long time...musically and in reality...

Everyone arrived on time...Mark Wood...Paul Morris...Nik Chinboukas was doing the live sound...I had a pretty big family there. Pretty soon the other bands arrived. We did our check and things sounded fine for me. The voice felt good. I would say 95% at soundcheck.

Soon after the new shirts arrived...also WARPED themed! Also some baby dolls for the girls of course...we will be selling them here as well as Doctor Butcher and autographed Music Man and Faces CD's! I will be personally autographing all CD's sold through CC.com from now on!!!!!

Once I finished my biz at the club I ran to a hotel room we got for showers to do my vocal warm-ups and get some time alone! I spoke to Al...I spoke to Mom...I needed some level heads to help me focus. I was really nervous finally. Before I was too busy to be nervous!

I returned to BBKings at 7:15...just in time to see Stevie and American Trash. His band is always great. I watched a little of everyone. I think all of the bands had their best shows I had ever seen.

Friends were showing up all night...Eddie from Twisted Sister showed up! I was happy to see him there...Johnny Dee from Doro was there to support Nick...who did an amazing job...everyone was like.."Man, where did you get that dude!" He really pulled through. I am so thankful for his arrival into our little world here!

Kemp arrived before show time...she was responsible for some of my new stage clothes...which I am saddened to say I have already lost! The green jacket was a casualty of post show confusion! Boo! Munsey was in the house...Ken and Pete from Sea of Tranquility, John Paris from SPV...Electric Dave Lawrence...lots of my friends...and of course lots of you!

I was especially happy to see Mr. Tim Cain make the show to introduce! I believe he just did Stevie, Kat and myself...he was great as usual!

Everyone was scrambling to get ready...once again I sat alone in the dressing room...awaiting what I spent years virtually alone putting together. My partner in crime Jeff and I had battled a lot to get things to this point. I was ready....

Before I knew it the time had come...the intro CD was on...I was out onstage. My voice felt good in warm-ups...I was still nervous...but we were about to go. Now...the nervousness left immediately...why? Well...because the fans were great...and the sound sucked onstage! Nothing like soundcheck at all!!! I could not hear my vocals....I could not hear my guitar...other than that I was fine!!!!!

The other problem I had was water. I forgot I had to play! We tried to devise a way to have it so I could drink from my mike stand....NOT...I was singing fine...but kept drying out. I had no way to get water during songs and my songs are not short!

I had to keep reachin behind to the drum riser...of course I had closed water bottles..thanks guys! It was fun. The crowd was great. They knew all of the words to the new songs...Saddamize with Morris and Wood was so cool! Bridges went really well...Music Man too...I was finally settling in by then! PMO was so much fun to play live. Everyone was singing along...we even had a planned stop and let the crowd sing the Starbucks line!

I stood alone once again for my solo in Preludio...of course I made it up as I went along....like I always do! The regular set was over....

We were called back to the stage for an encore...BB's even let us run a little late! Savatage was heavily represented in the fan #'s! I knew it was time for a little classic Sava...Sirens into Power of the night! I like to play title tracks...they all mean so much to different eras...I also like the classics...we will change these around regularly, I just did not want to kill poor Nick anymore than I already did this week!

Everyone did great...Nick, Jeff was a rock like usual...Brandon had a fine debut and Mr. LaPlaca was an animal as usual! Thanks guys for helping me get through show #1! I feel 1 million pounds lighter!

We got our stuff together and headed back to the house. I did not rmemeber packing my jacket...the first thing I did was look in my bag when I got home...nope! Not there...

Note to self...never trust anyone to do the idiot check of the dressing room but yourself!

Thanks to BBkings for asking me to come and play their amazing venue! Thanks to Alex Skolnick and his band, ZO2, Katrina and her band and Stevie and the Trash guys! Thanks to Mr. Cain, Wood and Morris...Thanks to alll of you who traveled near and far to see my first show ever. It is # 1 of hopefully hundreds and hundreds....

My voice made it through over 90 minutes! I thought I could have done better...but, this is what keeps me motivated!

See ya soon...one way...some how...I will get everywhere with this band! It has only just begun!

Peace!

Chris

WET!

Weather blows...I am in the dressing room on a wireless connection. It is frickin' pouring...I left my cell phone at Modell's...I was looking for a new water bottle thingy...

Voice feels great...if you have a paddle boat or a canoe there is still time to make it here!

Katrina just hit the stage...time to watch her sing!

C

Like my pre-show post said...it was all wet!

Usually rain will not hurt a turnout too bad...this was not rain...it was a tropical downpour. The day started off pretty calm...Butch arrived from NJ to get the gear again...we all loaded up and tried to leave by 1PM. I had some ravioli's for breakfast and tried to track down Nik Chinboukas. He was up all night with a session. I left for Long Island about an hour after everyone else...I headed to the basement to have some Greek coffee with John, Estia and Elissa.

My voice felt unusually good this day. I was not worried about it, even thought I did still feel sicka nd Jeff was fighting the flu too!

I arrived in Farmingdale at about 3:30 PM. The Doctor Butcher CD's finally arrived from Greece1 They look so cool. Black Lotus rules!

I wanted to try to find a better water device, so we finished soundcheck and I headed to Modell's. Soundcheck was great...the stage sounded good...my voice was at about 98%...I was happy.

I fought my way through the rain and grabbed a few items that I thought may work.

When I returned to the club all of the other bands were there. I was sharing my dressing room with Katrina. She is so cool! I really admire her as a singer. She is a great friend.

Everyone was ordering food for dinner, I had a bit of a nervous stomach ache, so I passed. I think this was a bad idea. Since I dropped a lot of weight fast, I think my body is using too much water....water I may be missing from food.

All of the bands were great again tonite. Kat was amazing as usual...Stevie was jsut fun to watch, always is. ZO2 did their thing and Alex was on fire.

I was very ready to play...there was a few funny moments...for example....I could not find my phone again. Had not seen it since Modell's...yup...had to go back and find it on the store floor. Ever since i stopped drinking I have been losing everything!

Then the club fire alarms went off from someone's burgers cooking...I immediately went to the kitchen to follow the food smell...it was great!

The funniest moment of all happened 20 seconds into Faces...frickin Igor kicked out my power cable from the wall...I lost my guitar amp. This kinda fucked my head up right away. I am nervous enough, but add this kind of trauma! It did get fixed, but the brain of the amp was reset and the foot switches did not work right. Thanks IGOR!

The show got back on track...the band was really tight. I felt great singing tonite, way better then Thur...this was until the middle of Music Man...something got stuck on my vocal chord. It was really weird...it made it really difficult to sing. I went into the Mold afterwarda and it was still weird...so I changed song order...I went into Preludio to play guitar for a bit while I rested my throat. I fought my way back through it and by the time we were into Sirens the voice was almost back to normal. If we played another hour it would have been fine! I am really over critical of myself so I thought I could have been better, but everyone said it was better than Thur...I dunno!

Show was fun...weather was a factor, but as Alex sez..."Hey, It's All Good!"

We packed up and headed back to Astoria...

Thanks to Paradise Atists for booking these 2 shows...thanks to Katrina and her band, Alex and his, ZO2 and American Trash! Thanks to my crew and band for putting up with my mentalness and thanks to those of you who saw the first two. I am looking forward to the future!

I sit now at Mom's, feeling very run down, I actually feel sicker than yesterday, but it is turkey season, I may be in the woods tomorrow AM...if not at sunrise, by 10AM...

My puppy is huge, my cat is scared of him!

Goodnight!

Chris

Hey!

Since I had no idea who was going to be in my band when I booked the BW show...I decided I was going to drive there.

So...

Jeff is already out that way....Nick is flying tonite and the rest of us sorry looking lot of hopefuls are driving.

Butch is the main driver...

It will be Butch, Ray my tour manager, myself and Igor in one vehicle and Brandon and Paul in another...

If we live to get to Cleveland we are going to rehearse tomorrow.

I dont know what the final set will be for either show and seeing that I change it as I go along who really cares what the paper sez anyway!

I need to get ready to go...talk to you from the Hilton tomorrow at some point!

May the Scwartz be with us!

C

Hmm...

He kicks my power cable out in LI...gives me the flu...gave Jeff the flu, gave Raymie the flu...now he is sick again and I had to ride with him for 8 hours...

I feel a bit run down still. I may hit the doctor's tomorrow. This is no fun...singers have to be way too careful!

Everyone is in Cleveland...thanks to the kind folks at our hotel for the early check in!

The ride was not too bad, I slept most of the way.

I have quarantined myself to my own room here so I can rest. We are rehearsing tomorrow afternoon, then it is a Winking Lizard Dinner before we head out ro see Ripper.

Hopefully I will feel better in the morning.

Goodnight!

C

Yup...

I just changed some strings on one of my guitars. We took a smaller crew here snce BW has a full stage crew. I have Igor to help Jeff with drums and to sell merch...Ray Freeman to tour manage and do lights. I am hiring Ripper's soundman for tomorrow...Butch is one of the drivers and is helping with basic tech work...I am not using a difficult rig, so I decided to change the strings on my 2 primary guitars myself and just wing it!

Today was great actually. Very relaxing here. I got up and checked my biz mail...got to the gym to run...then we rehearsed for about 5 hours. Voice felt really strong. I feel a lot better. The acoustic set is really cool. I added a very famous song about War to both sets. One of my favorites!

After rehearsal we returned to the hotel. Everyone here has been so nice to us. We had a delivery of Rice Krispy treats...a place to rehearse...a great hotel...I also had some gift certificates to the Winking Lizard that were a gift from Rockin' Randy. I took the guys for wings, pizza, chili fries and ribs. Yup...health food!

We met up with Dave and Leslie Jockers and Kasey from WNCX. They are all coming to the show. I may visit WNCX tomorrow. Dave and Leslie brought their son Adam...he has grown so much!

The lizard rocks!!!

From there it was off to The Odeon to see Beyond Fear. Ripper kicked ass. The crowd was really into it. The Brave Words people were very excited to see us and vice versa. I also met Jake from The End Records for the first time. They are my US distributor. He is a very hard working guy. Things are really going to change in the months to come. I am hoping to have a great show tomorrow! This is why I am back in my room and getting ready to sleep. Tomorrow will be a day spent mostly here...room service...rest...

If you are coming to the show I think this one will be the best yet. I have a really good feeling about it. As long as I am not too sick!!!!

Goodnight...Cleveland Rocks as always!

C

Hey...

Not much time to talk. I have to go to WNCX and then to Cooperstown. I will play one song on the radio and then the acoustic set. I am a glutton for punishment!

Last night went great! The voice felt a lot better and although I am not 100% yet...it was much more fun to sing when it worked!!!

Talk to you later today!

C

Hi!

WOW...what a great weekend!

The show at Cooperstown was so much fun! I think it went as well as I could have ever imagined! We did not play Pisses Me Off...but after I grabbed the electric and we did Edge of Thorns with Ripper and Power of the Night it would have been kinda weird to go back to acoustic for PMO. We also were at our time limit for the show and I wanted to let Russell get ready!

He is so amazing to watch sing...

Last night was fun...since I don't have to sing for a while I had fun and really enjoyed seeing the bands. Trouble was so incredible! I had not seen those guys since the Gutter tour. We caught on some old times in the dressing room.

Back at my room late I had a long talk with Nick about things and the upcoming band events and also had a visit and pizza delivery from Russell.

It is pretty much official...dates will go up tomorrow, we are going to tour Europe with Metal Church in June.

Lots more to talk about but I have to run!

Peace!

C