We had the good fortune to see the Foo Fighters last night at the Sprint Center.
Oh. Mah. God.
They blew the roof off the joint! Dave Grohl stopped after the first four songs and told the audience that they were gonna play a fuckin’ long show. They weren’t going to play some piddly-ass hour & a half show, they had 16 years of music and they were gonna play as long as they fucking wanted to. (He dropped F-bombs in almost every sentence, which instantly endeared him to me.) They did not short-change us on that promise. Two & a half hours later, they concluded a massive setlist that contained a six+ song encore, including three amazing acoustic versions with just Dave Grohl, doing what he does best – playing rock & roll, pouring his heart into those raw vocal chords, and being a kick-ass rock star who loves what he does and doesn’t seem to have been turned into an asshole by his fortune.
One of those acoustic songs was a song I’d forgotten had been my anthem when I worked at WGITWL (white guys in ties who lie) – and it brought tears to my eyes, all the emotion he can pour into his music, that you can still feel your soul vibrate without explosive guitars and Taylor Hanson’s spectacular drumming.
After the show, we were famished, having skipped dinner and bypassed the concessions; we contemplated a street cart hot dog before driving home, but when I heard “$6 for one”, I was having none of it. That would have to be one special motherfucking hotdog.
Instead, we went to Chubby’s on Broadway, where breakfast fare was had, the people-watching was spectacular, and the only blemish on the evening was the douchebag who parked so close to my car, I had to clamber into the driver’s seat from the passenger side. (Hope I dented your door, asshole!) Finally crawled into bed around 2 am, a little surprised at our late-night adventures. Not too shabby for a couple of middle-aged folks who are usually in bed by 9?
Before performing “These Days”, Grohl said it was his favorite song he’s written, and it’s a great song – powerful words about heartbreak, death, all the things you start to think about when you’re in your 40′s (as he is, as well) and you’re facing your own mortality and that of those you love, and still don’t want to go gently into that good night.
One of the great things about a band like the Foo Fighters is that they’ve had so many hits, so many great songs, that hearing them live and remembering the words and where you were when you were singing along in your car, at the top of your lungs, it does get a little nostalgic. Songs that aren’t in your “rotation” today come back and remind you of how much you enjoyed them, what your life was like, the person you were before you knew the things you know today. So – indulge my snippet from “Best of You”, the anthem I mentioned earlier. I fuckin’ love that song. Thanks, Foo. Thanks for an awesome night.
I’ve got another confession my friend
I’m no fool
I’m getting tired of starting again
Somewhere new
Were you born to resist or be abused?
I swear I’ll never give in
I refuse
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?
~~~~~UPDATE: 8:51 am~~~~~~~~~~
Forgive me, I’m running on about 5 hours of sleep. But there was a lovely confrontation the Foo had with the idiots from WBC. He talked about it during the show, and how they were calling him a “faggot” but smiling the whole time. Obviously, like 99% of the universe, he finds them as stupid and baffling and nonsensical. They heard they were going to be “protested” and so they dressed up like their current alter-egos, truckers, and sang ‘em a nice song about man-fucking. Here’s the video:
And since we’re talkin’ Foo Truckers…. here’s my REAL favorite… heh.