You know who me, my sister, and dad should have seen this summer? The Foo Fighters celebrating the 25 year anniversary of their Big Red Van tour. With this tour, they were going to be revisiting the very same cities they played originally, and lucky for us, Cleveland made the cut! Sadly, COVID is going nowhere and neither are we. So to reminisce on what could have been, I tell you about the three times I’ve got to see the band.
After my dad had been consistently listening to the band for a solid year (seriously, it was non-stop), I casually mentioned that they were coming around and that we should go. Now, for whatever reason, my dad had retired concertgoing from his life, so I was surprised how quickly he said yes. This tour was the highly publicized Broken Leg Tour, after Dave Grohl notoriously fell of a stage and hardcore broke his leg. In order to keep the show rolling, they had a rock and roll throne built, and the show went on! Royal Blood opened, and they were such a fantastic choice for their sound. Foo Fighters were equally, if not more so, impressive, and their set lasted close to three hours! They played all the hits and even took a request from a poorly made sign in the audience (way to go guy who loves the song “Low”)! Dad was thoroughly impressed and so was I.
The next time the Foo Fighters came around my sister had finally came to her senses and joined us. At an equally large, but different outdoor venue, I must say, I got us some excellent seats. My dad’s face was the epitome of happiness. This time around, The Struts opened up, and while they’re a little more glam rock, I still really like them, so I was very happy with the outcome! Again, the Foo Fighters played roughly a three hour set, and we were even treated to a cover of “Under Pressure” featuring Luke from The Struts! That man sounds and looks so much like Freddie Mercury that it’s almost frightening. Either way, another very successful show.
Finally, last year, and the annual rock festival my sister and I attend, Sonic Temple, featured Foo Fighters as the finale night headliner! Yay! The tickets to this are always so cheap for the amount of content you get, so I was pumped. Also, in a stadium like that, there really is no bad seat. Lucky for us, the weather cooperated the night of their set, and they rocked so hard! I was also thoroughly impressed by how long they played! In the past, bands closing out a festival usually play earlier and somewhat shorter than prior days’ acts, and I think that has a lot to do with people wanting to beat the crowd home. Not the Foo Fighters. They blasted into the night sky for two full hours, which was unprecedented in my years going to the festival. There are some dingbats who had issue with the band being there, but that’s just because they don’t appreciate good music. Perhaps my favorite moment of the night was hearing a random person say, “whoa, I didn’t know Dave Grohl could play drums?!”…um…the drummer from Nirvana probably knows how to play the drums. Love it.
Oh, yes! I’d be a fool if I forgot to mention me and my dad’s first run-in with the band! Back in 2014, the Foo Fighters announced a show in Niles, Ohio, where Dave Grohl is from, on record store day. Now, there was no chance in hell that we were going to be able to snag two of probably less than 150 tickets, but I mentioned that we could at least be there and probably hear them. Using a bike ride as an excuse, we headed up on the day. No surprise, the place was packed, so we pulled around back of the plaza where the record store was located to park. As soon as we turn in, two guys zoom past on their motorcycles – we could have run them over! And that would have been really bad, because those two dudes happened to be Dave Grohl and Rami Jaffee! We then parked so fast and jogged up to where they’d parked their motorcycles it was probably comical to watch. No autographs were obtained, but I was probably only three feet away from Dave, and that was a sweet, sweet day. My sister couldn’t believe it when I called her. Anyways, I miss these guys deeply, and I hope we get a make-up tour next year to commemorate what could have been.
