i'm a brand new sky to hang the stars upon tonight

so now for the customary concert review. to start: the foo fighters are awesome. the only reason why it wasn't the best concert i've seen so far this year is because velvet revolver came before them. nonetheless, it was still an amazing show.

dave grohl is simply a god. he's destined to be inducted in the rock n' roll hall of fame one day and his every movement on stage is a testament to that. his energy was so high throughout the entire show, and every time he spoke you can just feel that anticipation from the crowd, how everyone is hanging on his every word. there's a certain mix of rock star aggressiveness and honest appreciation that he exudes in such confident style. definitely the best front man of any rock band i've seen.

the problem really was with the rest of the band. there is a lack of swagger from chris shiflett and nate mendel. it's almost as if they can't handle being in one of the biggest rock bands in the world. the only one who even comes close to matching grohl's on-stage charisma is taylor hawkins, who has seriously become a very powerful drummer. it's cool that pat smear is touring with them, and their new keyboards guy seems interesting. they had a fellow named drew who played percussion, meaning silly things like bongos and triangles, and they also added a female violin player. all of these people played only in the acoustic set, which i will get to in a minute. but it was cool when they had 8 people playing at once, though it was a little too folksy looking for my taste.

the other thing was the setlist. at points it was powerful, but sometimes it just felt a little bit bashed together. it was great that they explored a lot of their older stuff, but it just served to show how different the band has become in the past decade. it was nice that they split the set into a hard rock and an acoustic segment. they hid the acoustic set in this black casing suspended over the main floor. dave grohl got an acoustic guitar, and they transitioned to the acoustic set by lowering it onto the floor. it was a pretty amazing moment.

but i suppose what made the concert good was what actually counts: the songs. in that respect there is little to fault them for. the foo fighters can rock hard. their sounds system is pretty amazing and the music was simply breathtaking. every single song sounded terrific. they sounded like louder, less polished versions of what went on their albums, which i feel is actually ideal for a concert. that's really the point of it. you don't go to try and listen out for the complexity of each song; you go so you can rock out to some seriously powerful tunes. and in that respect it was well done.

it was unfortunate though that the most powerful moment for me came very early in the set. i suppose i've always been affected by this one song more than their others, so it's not really their fault at all. but i suppose there was something just a little more poignant about hearing 'times like these' live. the last chorus came very close to making me actually cry, which is a first for me as far as concerts go. it really does feel like strange times of late, and it felt almost personal when they played it.

all in all quite a powerful evening. it was unfortunate that i had to go alone. i'm sure someone else could have used a good rock concert.