Lush. Warm. Intimate. Mellow.



These are the words I'd use to describe the Foo Fighters acoustic (or "afoostic" as they've been referring to it) concert on Wednesday night. I was really blown away by how lovely the show was.

Frank Black (The Pixies) opened--I have to say I was counting the minutes until he got off the stage.

Then Dave Grohl strode onto the stage, picked up his guitar, leaned into the mic and said, "Hey everyone, how's it going?" and began playing "Razor" (my new favorite song) all by himself. It was INCREDIBLE and haunting. His voice sounded better than ever. Near the end of the song, Chris, Nate and Taylor joined him onstage, along with guitarist Pat Smear (former Foo/Nirvana guitarist), keyboardist Rami Jaffee (The Wallflowers), violinist Petra Haden (The Sellouts), and a second percussionist, whose name now escapes me. Sorry, castanet-dude.

The setlist included a few songs from their latest double album (Over and Out, Miracle, and Cold Day in the Sun, which featured Taylor singing lead), a rare B-side song Dave had written years ago (Skin and Bones) and some classic Foo (Big Me, Walking After You, My Hero, Times Like These, Floaty, February Stars, Next Year).

This is the second concert I've attended in which the audience remained seated throughout, up until the encore. As always, Dave entertained the audience with his sparkling wit, poking fun at Yuengling lager and the now-cancelled TV dramedy Ed, as well as accepting a gift for his 4-month old daughter from a fan.

Dave reappeared for a three-song encore (Friend of a Friend, Best of You, and Everlong) at which point I had managed to sneak down to the pit in front of the stage. By then, I think the ushers had pretty much given up on trying to enforce seating. So I got to stand directly in front of Dave--near enough that I could see all the details of the tattoos on his arms! I was seriously shaking like a leaf in a windstorm because I was so damn close to him. As he played Everlong, the entire theatre could have come crashing down around me and I don't think I would have noticed.

Fantastic show. If they ever come around again, I'm just going to bite the bullet and cough up major cash for a really good seat.

Tomorrow is the Steely Dan concert with my mom...

Labels: concerts, Foo Fighters, music