ChainDrive

Sandwich resident Dave Farren's future as a motocross star ended at age 14, when an unexpected birthday present led to an entirely different future.

"My father asked me if I wanted a new dirt bike or a guitar," Farren says.

Farren chose the instrument. He's now a member of the rock band ChainDrive and, 23 years after receiving the guitar, still thinks he made the right choice.

The band's blend of enthusiastic vocals, expert guitar play and modern rock sensibilities will make Cape music lovers glad that Farren picked the ax, too.

ChainDrive plays an energy-filled mix of guitar-fueled rock, bouncy concert staples and the occasional acoustic jam across Cape Cod and the South Shore.

Though he now works more with a mike than a Fender (he leaves lead-guitar duties to band mate Jeff Lawson of Bourne), Farren's musical background has taught him how to put on a show.

In the early 1990s, Farren and ChainDrive drummer Jon Vicery helped found another Cape band that still plays, Farren says.

The duo stayed with the band for nine years but found the song choices lacking. For every show, he says, "it was the same set list. ... I got kind of bored."

Farren and Vicery teamed up with Lawson — a professional musician who'd joined Shattered a year before and had played with Vicery "when they were really young" — to start ChainDrive.

Bassist Steve Bold joined soon after, and the band found, after a few practices, that all four members knew many of the same songs.

Two years after forming, the band has more than 180 songs that it rotates through at shows. According to Farren, ChainDrive will play "anything from Simon & Garfunkel to Pantera. ... We're really good at playing the room."

The huge set list makes for a different show almost every time the band performs. The Commodores' "Brick House" is followed by Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" just as often as by Pearl Jam's "Black," creating an eclectic mix of danceable hit singles and decidedly hard rockers.

Helped by the expert playing of Lawson (his solos are something to behold), Vicery and Bold, Farren's voice, reminiscent of the gravelly Sully Erna of Boston's Godsmack, moves effortlessly from driving rock to funky pop and back again.

The band also incorporates some of its originals into shows, including the bittersweet "I Wish I," Farren's favorite, and the Latin-infused "Federales."

ChainDrive is "four songs away from a complete album," but band members are still more interested in the enthusiasm of live shows than in studio-aided music, Farren says.

That's good for Cape metalheads and pop princesses alike, as the joy of a ChainDrive show is its variety.

Farren agrees that a 12-track CD just wouldn't be the same as a live performance. "We're full of energy," he says, with the goal of making every show "an experience."

- Cape Cod Times July 17, 2008