Foo Fighters

Well, here it is Kids, the long awaited write up of the Foo Fighters’ concert. What’s that you say? Oh, you haven’t been waiting. Well I have. I was so psyched after the concert that I wanted to write it up immediately, before realizing that I had to get up in a few hours and go to work for the first day in what was to be a very full on week. Then I was going to write it up the next day but blah-de-blah, same old story. Now, almost a month later, I’ll try to do it justice.
I suppose I should really start by pointing out that this was my first real rock concert. With the exception of the first concert I ever went to, which was Oasis at Knebworth park, all the concerts I’ve been to have been smaller affairs. I suppose you could say that Oasis at Knebworth park was a real rock concert, what with there being 125,00 odd people there, but I don’t really count it. We saw three amazing warm up bands. When I say saw, I mean saw Ocean Colour Scene, who were up first, then heard the Manic Street Preachers, who were second, from inside the beer tent in which we queued for the whole of their set. After the Manics, the Prodigy played, and man did they rock!!! Ultimately it set those charming Gallagher boys up for a fall because after the Prodigy’s energy, passion and determination to make the crowd go apeshit, they could only disappoint.
Anyway, so the Kaiser Chiefs opened for the Fooies (actually, some other band opened and they sounded pretty good, but we weren’t in there yet), and rocked it so hard that I almost thought it was going to be the same scenario as Oasis. Not that I didn’t think that the Fooies would rock it but the Chiefs just rocked it so hard and gave so much. I say almost because the Fooies came onstage and hit it from the get go, opening with “In Your Honour”, powering straight into “All my Life”. They then stopped and Dave Grohl said a few words, saying he wanted to take the opportunity to say hello and thanks for coming because they don’t like to stop. “The reason for this is that we have a limited amount of time and a lot of fucking hits to play!”, quipped Grohl. “We also, alongside the hits, have a lot of crusty old shit. Do you want to hear some of the crusty old shit?” Of course the crowd went berserk and the band responded by launching into “My Hero”, going from there straight into “Best of you”. Now I won’t bore you with the precise ins and outs of the concert but I will say this: I was hugely relieved. Seeing as it was the “In Your Honour” tour, I was a little apprehensive about the fact that the material they played may consist largely of the new stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the new stuff, and don’t mean to stifle any band’s progress by just wanting to hear the crusty old shit. I love hearing bands play their new material. I did, however, at my first Fooies gig, desperately hope to see them do all the classics; “My Hero”, “Breakout”, “Generator”, “Stacked Actors”, “Everlong”, “Aurora”, “All My life”, the list goes on. They didn’t disappoint, playing all of these and more, even treating us to “Big Me”, a song which, according to Grohl, they haven’t played for eight years. “What about Monkey Wrench?”, I hear you say. Oh yes. Oh YES!! They finished with this, the mother of all Fooies tunes, and I don’t think a single person there remained unrocked.
It was a great night. They provided all the things you’d hope for at a gig like that. They brought the intensity in a way that absolutely astounded me. They came on and hit it from the very start, as I said, and just seemed to keep ratcheting it up and up. The band only stopped briefly a couple of times, when Grohl would talk. I could have listened to more of him talking, being as he is a true entertainer, funny, wise and, God damn it, so very down to earth and humble. They were, however, mostly there for the business of rocking, and did so. The band left the stage only once, and even then Grohl stayed and soloed for a good five minutes on “Everlong”, before the band joined in and they rocked it once more. I thought, when they came back on for their encore, that they couldn’t possibly have any more to give. They did though, and powered through Generator before lead singer and drummer switched roles in order for Taylor Hawkins to sing “Cold day in the sun”, which he penned for disc two of “In Your Honour”. This also served the purpose of treating us all to a spell of Dave Grohl, behind the drums. Legendary, that’s all I can say. They then switched back and gave even more for Monkey Wrench. Honestly, I thought my head was going to explode, it was so damn good.
So that’s it. I didn’t do it justice, but it was great fun thinking back. I want to be there again. I could have summed it up in two words really. It rocked!