MOG

Friday morning there was one group on my list of bands I would never let pass through town without me being in the front row at their show.  That was The Roots.

Now, there's two.

1) After 6 (?) albums, it's nothing for these guys to fill 2 1/2 hours with nothing but bangers...and still leave out a couple favorites.

2) Dave Grohl is a showman, and just in general a likeable dude.

They day I bought my ticket to this show, this is what I knew about Foo Fighters:

• They did that video of the Mentos commercials.
• Learn to Fly
• I think they made that video where the guy grows a huge hand and starts putting the smack down on people.
• The Pretender
• Dave Grohl sent some trapped miners who like FF tickets to their shows, and wrote a song for them.
• Dave Grohl drummed on "Go With The Flow" by QOTSA.
• My friend Jenn is a RABID Foo Fighters fan...and wouldn't shut the fuck up about how great they were.

Yeah...that's about it.  But, it was enough for me to check them out and expect a good show.

So, not being too familiar with their stuff, I downloaded all their albums, and figured I'd see what I was getting myself into.  Well, two weeks before the show, I hadn't even scratched the surface.  They've just got a ton of material.  So, genius Troy goes online and finds the set lists from their last few shows, and puts together a playlist of the songs I'm likely to hear.  Cool.  Much easier to digest.

Well, a week after that, I was the weird kid on the bus to and from work with the headphones on, always bobbing his head and stomping his foot like some maniac.

Did I say I expected a good show?  I got much more than that.

Ya know what I like about FF?  Dave Grohl is just a fucking charismatic dude.  The two or three times he stopped to give the band a break and just chatter on for a while, I didn't mind it at all.  He's funny.  He seems like a guy you'd like to go out, have beers with, and just joke and talk shit.  And he talks with this funny accent.  Not quite country, but not far from it.  But, yeah, he comes off like a regular dude that just happens to play guitar and sing a little.

At one point he's talking about how most rock bands will get up and play for an hour...maybe an hour and a half, but he's about to bring "the rock show!"  He goes on like, "You don't have to work tomorrow, do you?  Well, neither do I!  I just have to do this."  He continues, "I know if all you guys could be..."  Pause.  Now if he says, "I know if all you guys could be rock stars, you would,"  it's gonna sound kinda cocky.  And, in a split second he has that same realization.  "...porn stars, you would.  But, we're not all that blessed."

Another funny thing that happened, someone close to us in the cloud was getting his burn on, and the smell of marijuana was strong.  It smelled like dirt, but...that's neither here nor there.  So, security starts pointing their flashlights into the crowd, and sending people out there to find the culprit.  Mid song, Dave notices what's going on, and puts his fingers up to his lips like he's smoking one, then points his index and middle fingers towards his eyes (a la Meet the Parents), signaling whoever out there that has the weed like, "Dude, they're looking for you."  Hilarious.

Oh, yeah, and every fuckin' song they played kicked ass!  They even performed the two songs they did for the Who tribute (since they had Gaz from Supergrass on hand).  The man definitely made good on his promis to bring "the rock show."  I'll be seeing them every single time they're in Cleveland...or anywhere else within driving distance.  If they don't play Cleveland, I'm driving to Detroit or Chicago.  Fuck it.

They opened the show with Let it Die. Great opening song. Starts out mellow, builds up to a thunderclap.  Anybody out there know what this song is about?  I know Grohl is once divorced.  I imagine it's about his wife becoming a heroin addict or something.