Foo Fighters

The fucking Foo Fighters…I honestly don’t know how to begin this story. They have spanned the entirety of my adult life and through thick and thin [and there’s def been some thin] I still love them though.

Let’s start with a conversation I had with my mates probably six or seven years ago on a balcony overlooking an inner Melbourne shopping strip, five beers deep [and the rest] and talking about what band would define each one of them. It’s a really interesting exercise because it’s not what you would define yourself as, it what others perceive you to be. Maybe because you’re always listening to them. Maybe because you had an experience with one of them…hell, maybe you farted one of their songs one day. But it’s like the band that most suits your personality.

So to give you an insight into my group of mates, it’s made up of Daft Punk, Boards of Canada, Tool, Split Enz…and I got Foo Fighters. [I’m not totally unhappy about it either]

With that being said, hopefully you can begin to understand how much of an impact the Foo Fighters had on me. I saw them in both 2014 [Wasting Light Tour] and 2018 [Concrete & Gold Tour] and both gigs were undeniably epic. They know how to put on a goddam show.

Let me regress though. I remember being pretty shaken to my musical core when I heard Kurt died. I wasn’t like one of those peeps running around going “Did you hear? Hey…did you hear?”, but was well and truly saddened when I realised there would never be any more Nirvana. If you lived through this period of time and became attached to idea that this band was gonna make even bigger waves, naive or not, I found myself saying ‘what a waste’.

Funnily enough, in a way I still believe that. But what I wasn’t ready for was for the drummer to turn around and go ‘Fuck that…I’m gonna go and make another band’. Without the history lesson of why Dave did what he did, I have vivid memories of going into a record store [Hey kids, if you don’t know what this is, Google ‘Brash’s’] in Frankston in 1995 and asking [pre-shazam…and any sort of decent internet for that matter] who sang the song about fingernails. *blank stares from the large prepubescent store clerk as I start to hum the chorus to ‘This Is A Call’ very badly*

Needless to say, I finally discovered who it was and without trying to sound like a cock, I was really drawn to the lighter, more commercial side of what Dave Grohl was putting out. I would never have said that in the 90’s. Nirvana was like this iconic untouchable that nothing could surpass. But just quietly, I bought their first album on CD and slowly built up a little bit of a love for Dave’s musical temperament.

It wasn’t Nirvana. It wasn’t like anything else actually, apart from being just a really upfront, kick arse rock band. Sure, Dave’s getting on these days even though he’s still rocking the shit out of it, but early Dave had a fire in him that was enigmatic. I don’t think anyone can keep that fire forever. But god love him, he’s done a pretty bloody good job at squeezing the most out of it when he had it. [Let me add a side note here that I don’t think he’s lost his spark, I just think as a global community, he’s so famous now that there’s not really much mystery about him any more]

So after nine studio albums, over 12 million album sales and sold out tours around the world, I don’t think there is much question that they’ve at least created music that a decent amount of people around the world identify with. When you stand back and look at these albums from a distance, a different picture begins to form. A picture that paints them as a group of musicians who understand how to make a career from evolving your music.

One of the defining aspects of the Foo Fighters in their early years was their sense of play. Sure, their music wasn’t as polished, but I don’t think I was ever in it for polish. Which is possibly why after all the music they’ve created, my favourite album is one of their early ones.’The Colour & the Shape’ was the bands second album and very possibly their most popular. It’s probably the one most people know at least. It’s the blue one with the connecting balls on it. Apart from being touted as one of the 90’s most seminal rock albums, if you dig a little deeper there is a bigger story about Dave’s divorce and the highs and lows that come with it….plus, Dave plays drums on every track on the album. And it fucking shows.

It doesn’t necessarily have the best songs on it, but as a defining album, it really made an impact on me. None more than the one song that they play at the end of every concert they do…the always classic ‘Everlong’. It kills me that EVERYONE loves this song, but I understand why. When you look back at classic rock songs, I really do think that this one will be held up as their best. I’ve wondered a bucket load of times why this is the case and the best I can come up with is a sneaky combination of amazing rock song and a very smart decision to get the unbelievable Michel Gondry to direct the music video.

In an era when Rage [or something like it…but not quite as good] was nearly the most influential medium for new music, the impact that this song had on me was immense, but when I saw the music video, it blew my mind. Something cemented itself in my psyche that day and its still quite happily parked there assuming squatters rights until further notice. For what its worth, I dream a lot when I sleep. Always have. And there is something about the way its filmed, the context of the video and the aligning song that always made me feel as though I were watching an actual dream.

There is something to be said for a band that banks on inclusiveness though. It’s like they’re totes happy to relate to a large audience without the animosity and angst that some bands can have in an effort to show that they’re legit. Maybe it’s because Dave already had a universe of cred up his sleeve from Nirvana, but they never rode those coat tails for very long [or ever].

The music they make is just different from his previous incarnation. For those who never really got into the Foo Fighters but love what Dave did on the drum kit during the early 90’s, I’d advise searching for ‘No One Knows’ by Queens of the Stone Age music video. Its the closest thing you’ll get to him in his element….plus it’s a fricken epic song.

But when the nuts and bolts come together and you really look at this band musically, they do some really amazing work. Different temperatures. Different stories. All done with what seems like a group of dudes having a blast just being a rock and roll band. And maybe thats what I like the most is that they never seem to take themselves too seriously. From music videos about a plane full of people getting high to hitting your absolute low with Jack Black in a hotel room in the back waters of nowhere, they’re adventurous.

Even in their past couple of albums like Sonic Highways, their eighth album where they travelled the US and made songs about eight cities while writing the lyrics at the time they were there is just an indication of how they are always looking to do something different.

We all know Dave is the heart and soul of the Fooeys, but if you ever get the ‘I wonder’s of an evening, read a little about their story. From the addition of Pat Smear who dates back to the Nirvana days to their original drummer cracking the shits and pissing off after Dave rerecorded the entire drum section himself on their second album, they’ve stuck together over a long time.

Sure, they’re playing a more mature vibe these days, but it’s no less entertaining. And like a beer on a hot day, even when its bad its still good. Maybe thats because it’s so familiar to me, but what else would you expect coming from someone who’s landed these guys as my band identity….my bandentity. [Oh yeah, we can totally make this a thing]

M/

~ Article updated September 2019