Fighting Foo With Foo Fighters
"It's Times Like These You Learn to Live Again"
If rock and roll is your thing, (and if it isn’t, perhaps it should be) you can’t do better than Foo Fighters. We saw them recently, and it was great. For anyone looking to rock out, our advice is to go find yourself a Foo Fighters show. You won’t be disappointed.
Dave Grohl is the founder, songwriter, producer, lead singer, guitarist, and . . . well, let’s just say he’s the heart and soul of Foo Fighters. But, he’s not alone on stage. The rest of the Foos are fantastic musicians and performers, as well. Bassist Nate Mendel has been with Dave from the beginning. Rhythm guitarist Pat Smear, lead guitarist Chris Shiflett, keyboard player Rami Jaffee, and their newest member, drummer Josh Freese round out the lineup. They were all excellent, Josh Freese especially, given he was replacing the late, great Taylor Hawkins. It can’t be easy to replace someone as beloved as Taylor, but Josh is an experienced, powerful, dynamic drummer in his own right, and his fit with Foo Fighters was seamless to my untrained eyes and ears.
One of the rare pleasures of life is seeing someone who is good at what they do, enjoying what they do. I can’t imagine anyone who enjoys his job more than Dave Grohl. His enthusiasm and joy are infectious.
A Foo Fighters concert is an interactive experience. Dave Grohl’s performance almost demands it. He’s up there on stage working his guts out trying to entertain the fans. He sings lead on all the songs, plays guitar, runs all around the stage, putting everything he’s got into every moment of a two and a half hour show, and he looks like he’s having the time of his life playing his songs. You almost feel as if you are letting Dave down if you don’t respond to the tremendous effort he is putting forth. Many times throughout the show, he asked for the lights to be turned up on the audience so he could, “. . . get a look at these motherfuckers!” And, of course, the crowd would roar. He and the crowd seemed to feed off each other. It was quite an experience.
I have to admit, my wife and I leave a lot to be desired as audience members. Neither of us could be described as boisterous, loud, enthusiastic, or uninhibited. We enjoyed the show very much, but outwardly, it probably was hard to tell. An audience full of people such as us, would be dang near funereal. I’m grateful the rest of the crowd made up for us quiet folks.
A highlight of the show was the pared down version of “Times Like These”. It was played and sung at a slower tempo, just Dave and his guitar for the first part. Actually, that’s not entirely true. It was Dave and practically the entire audience singing the lyrics. It was very moving.
Later, Dave introduced the song “Aurora”, explaining that it was the first song he and Taylor Hawkins had ever worked on together. It was a lovely tribute to his fallen bandmember and close friend.
The audience stood from the first song to the last. Two and a half hours of standing on concrete is not an easy feat for us old geezers. I saw a few grey-haired folks around us sit down after a while and I remember thinking, “Too much for you, eh, old timer? The heck with that, I’m not sitting down.” However . . .
Sometime past the show’s halfway point, I started to feel that something wasn’t quite right. I started to feel a little lightheaded and queasy. I noticed I had begun sweating profusely, I mean, like buckets, all of a sudden. Finally, I had to give in and sit down. Just like an frail old man.
I sat out a couple of songs, drank some water, and then I started to feel better. I got back up on my feet and finished out the show. It was strange. I felt so crummy and then it went away. Did I experience sensory overload? Was the whole thing simply too much for a tired, old goat? I told my wife that maybe I was having a reaction to the skunk weed cloud that seemed to envelope the entire area. Could that really have been the cause of my temporary distress? I don’t know. It was very odd.
Before we entered the venue, we wondered if we would stick out as a couple of old people in a sea of youthfulness. We were reassured as we walked through the parking lot when we saw many wrinkles and grey hair and bald heads and paunchy stomachs mixed in with all the fresh young faces. Our age group was well represented amongst all of the young folks in attendance.
And, that’s because Foo Fighters rock. Their appeal is across generational lines. Directly to my left, there was what I guessed to be a middle-aged man with his teenage daughter. And, they were really into the Foo Fighters experience. Personally, I thought it was quite cool, and reassuring in a way, to see a father and daughter being able to share an event such as this. It gave me a bit of hope for the future to see a young person who obviously was being raised the right way. She was being raised to rock.
Good for you going to the concert. You are never too old.