Before the Foo Fighters concert, I was sitting around musing about how weird it was to be out at a concert while Tasha watched Eve. Â I have the greatest wife in the world to allow me to do such crazy things as going to a rock show on a Sunday night, leaving her to diapers and feedings and whatever other fun things that the baby is able to muster up in my absence. Â I figured this is the type of thing that I should be blogging about, then I had to tack on some dreaded words: IF I WERE STILL BLOGGING.
So I decided after the show, no matter how tired and deaf I was (am!) I would write something for the blog tonight.
The opening acts for the Foo Fighters show were Mariachi El Bronx and Cage the Elephant. Â Mariachi El Bronx was so far off the chart for things I wouldn’t ever listen do that we didn’t even elect to go into the venue during their set. Â I imagine there exists a slim reality where I could have walked through the entrance to the venue, been teleported into a strange parallel universe where mariachi music was hardcore and cool, so I won’t immediately say there’s no chance of me ever liking it… but it’s mathematically unlikely.
Several of my indie music friends should recognize Cage the Elephant, since they are a rather popular band. Â I can tell you this: their sound guy hates everyone. Â Their drummer and guitarists were quite capable, but the lead singer’s volume was way too high for the rest of the band and his vocal track borderlines on coked-out howler monkey so it wasn’t working for me. Â It’s a shame too… I really wanted to have a good experience listening to them, so I could tell my other indie music friends how good they are… but it wasn’t working for me tonight.
Exhausted of lackluster music, I was relieved when the Foo Fighters came on. Â Within their first three songs, they had the crowd engaged and were rocking it out. Â They played “Learn to Fly” early and then promised that they weren’t one of those crappy bands that plays an hour and forty five minutes and is done, so we might want to call in sick to work tomorrow. Â They finished their encore at 11:47 pm, having played almost two hours and forty-five minutes. Â Dave Grohl doesn’t phone it in either… they were rocking it out the whole time.
The part that impressed me most was how the band engaged the crowd. Â Dave Grohl took the time to call out individuals that he noticed enjoying themselves, happy birthday wishes to people with signs… he even implored all of the teenaged kids in the crowd to go buy guitars so there can actually be bands that use real guitars in the future instead of computer equipment. Â There was so much good music to be had that it’s not even worth rattling off the list of songs… if you heard it on the radio and it was by them, they probably played it. Â They also played tracks off of their new album, which seems to be very good.
Dave pointed out that one song “These Days” is his absolute favorite song he’s ever written. Â He wrote it “in like a minute” and was playing the chords and working out the lyrics and realized that he was writing the song he’d been trying to write for 20 years. Â It was a cool song, very introspective. Â It’s worth a listen.
Suffice it to say, the Foo’s made up for the lackluster opening acts in a huge way. Â If they come out here again, I’m not missing it.
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