10 -- Foo Fighters – Monday, March 17, 2008 – Centre Bell – Montreal, Canada

Behind the Music

I was furious that I missed the Foo Fighters show in Memphis. I had paid full price for the concert ticket / plane ticket, had re-listened to every song, and had really looked forward to seeing Aunt Mary, Karen, Jeff, Robbie, Joanna, and the kids.



Fortunately, although I was never able to recoup the money, I was able to make up for everything else. Within a year, I was able to visit everyone in Memphis, and within two months, on the date above, I was able to see Foo Fighters in Montreal. The concert was part of my Subzero Spring Break, a 2000-mile excursion that took me across Virginia, DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Montreal. Anything for you, Dave… ;) The trip enabled me to connect with more than just Grohl; I was able to visit ‘Sketchy’ Matt Decarlo, Paul Trifiletti, Paul/Jennifer/Zoey/Alex Verbesey, Patrick Hattan, and Erin Hattan along the way. I’d share amusing anecdotes from each of those visits, but that’d be for a different blog. The relevant question here is…

How Was The Actual Concert? Was It Worth It?

Absolutely. They did not mail it in for a minute. They rocked out from beginning to end, fully aware that many fans had traveled a considerable distance and paid considerable money to see the show.

I love that they started with “Let it Die” and not “The Pretender.” I’m a fan of “The Pretender,” don’t get me wrong, but “Let it Die” is darker and less well known – thus a more intriguing first choice. It was also a nice inversion of Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace – “Pretender” is first on the album; “Let it Die” is second. They nailed both songs’ crescendos – starting off slow, quiet, and demonic, adding more and more menace as they built, and exploding in anger at the end. “Stacked Actors,” another slow burner, worked just as well later in the show.





My Only Quibbles

I wish I’d listened to Skin and Bones (their acoustic album) before the show, and I wish they’d played “Aurora” (my first Foo Fighters song). It also would have been nice if they had played “In Your Honor,” “No Way Back,” and “Best of You” in succession – if they had recognized that listening to those one after the other had been a seminal moment in my musical childhood. How could they not care?







The only legitimate criticism I will offer is that Grohl did scream at points. I don’t mean the controlled, melodic screaming from the albums; I’m talking full-on banshee shrieks. You could argue that these added to the raucous atmosphere, or that they had just visited L.A. and had decided to pay homage to a pre-Idol Adam Lambert. In general, though, you want to avoid straight-up shrieking.

High Point

The fusion of “Everlong” and “Monkey Wrench” was the musical high point of the evening. This final crescendo actually began before “Everlong,” as the band performed a four-song acoustic set on the secondary stage. Starting with these lesser known Skin and Bones tracks made the transition into the revamped acoustic version of “Everlong” seamless. The best (and most unlikely) transition of all was the one from “Everlong” RIGHT into “Monkey Wrench.” On paper, slowly building through five songs and then LAUNCHING into the sixth sounds too jarring, too abrupt. In concert, though, it was incredible – something you could never burn onto a CD.



Beyond the Music

Grohl and the band performed the actual songs remarkably well. There was no real fall off from the albums; an occasional yelp can be forgiven. Beyond the music, though, what earned them an unqualified “A” was their charisma. Like the E Street Band, they understood the “show” element of a live show.

During rowdy songs, Grohl ran up and down the main stage, the secondary stage, and the strip in between them. During some of the calmer songs, he shared tales of his cannabis past (clearly knowing his Canadian audience ;)).

Before the encore break, he asked who had been to a Foo Fighters concert before; thousands cheered. He then asked who were at their first Foo Fighers concert; thousands cheered. He abruptly stopped and asked, “Wait, stop cheering! Where the ---- have you been?!” Both groups laughed and cheered in unison.

During the encore break, a Blair Witch Project style video appeared on the screen, with the band members slowly revealing the set list and angrily ‘arguing’ over how many ‘last song’s there’d be. They ended up settling on three. They had said, after all, “This is gonna be a long show. Does anyone want a short show? If you guys would prefer it, we can definitely do a short show.” Awesome. Long show every time.

Overall: A