Yes, We Can Hear You.

Foo Fighters in Concert
8.25.06 – Auditorium Theater in Chicago

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I got a chance to see the Foo Fighters in concert. It was sweet. Frank Black opened. Frank Black didn't play long enough, which was disappointing.

The Foo Fighters keep coming out with albums I detest. They get more and more repetitive and uninspired. Maybe lazy is the word I’m looking for. What they need is to work with a producer who will tell them that they need to write cohesive songs instead of repeating cute riffs ad nauseam. Granted, this newest split double album was way less derivative than their previous effort, but they’ve still got a long way to go before I’m once again a fanboy.

The concert, though, was sweet. They played a really great mix of old and new. The old was given a total makeover. They even played a really spiced up and slowed down version of “Floaty” - with Petra Hayden singing beautifully. She actually sounded a little freaked out by the chance at first, but grew more comfortable as the song swelled. In fact, Grohl as a frontman has the admirable quality of letting the ego go, allowing everyone else on stage to really shine as well. There was even a triangle solo, which was hilarious.

The setup was really cool. The usual four Foo Fighters were there – Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, and Taylor Hawkins. Then, joining them was long-ago member Pat Smear on guitar. Then they have Petra on violin, Drew Hester on percussion, Rami Jaffee (from the Wallflowers) playing piano and keyboard and smoking all night.

These guys all blended together well. The result was really beautiful, almost orchestral but not quite. The performances certainly did transcend what I would have previously considered the potential of the songs. Oh, and most of the encore was just Grohl and his acoustic guitar. All alone, he played “Friend of a Friend” – a really, really old song I was glad to see revived – the entirety of the song “In Your Honor” – a song that I really, really detest – and most of “Everlong,” and then the rest of the band joined back in and did this big long coda outro to cap up the whole show. It was fantastic.

If you get the chance, see this tour. I really hope they put out some CD or DVD acoustic set; I’d buy it without hesitation. It again restored my faith in the Foo Fighters, even if I’ll always be a bit apprehensive about that next inevitable album.