Nevermind the Foo

I meant to post this last week when it was fresher in my mind, but better late than never. I happened to attend the Foo Fighters concert last week at Quicken Loans Arena. In short, it was awesome. A few thoughts...

• Rise Against opened, and they were actually really good. I always liked Rise Against, but I didn't know that I was "in like" with them until I saw them live. Their blue collar message has always been a welcome one, and when they slammed both Gov. Kasich and Ohio Senate Bill 5, I was surprised how many people cheered. I was so appreciative of their performance, and their pro-union stance, I bought a rubber wristband...because that's how I participate in activism. I buy wristbands.
• A good rock concert is a religious experience. When you're really into the band you're seeing, you might as well be at a tent revival. Every song is like a hymn you've been singing since you were a kid. Every note and every lyric hits you deep within your soul, posessing your body as you wail and clap along. Guitar licks sound like someone speaking in tongues. When the music stops, the congregation hangs on the frontman's every word, waiting to hear that most anticipated of dismissal invocations: "Thank You, Cleveland! Good night!"
• When you're from a city like Cleveland, a city starved for validation and identity, you go batshit insane with pride for any person of stature that's from your city. Hell, from the same region. As some of you may know, Dave Grohl is from Warren, OH, about an hour south of Cleveland. The second he referenced this fact, you'd have thought he told us we all won a car. (Who am I kidding, this is Cleveland, we would have reacted the same way to winning a single free beer.) I wish I could say I wasn't close to tears at several points during this concert, but I'd be lying. I love Foo Fighters, and I love Dave Grohl, and I love that we're both from the same proximate geographic vicinity.
• I got the tickets through my former boss at the Film Commission, and he hooked me up in a suite. Now, don't get me wrong, being in a suite is awesome, but I couldn't help but think the concert would have been better from the floor, instead of above and right next to the stage. I couldn't stand up because no one else in the suite was standing, and I felt constrained by the expectations of the other "suite people." Full disclosure, though: I may be near the age where I appreciated not standing for five hours, but as a member of Generation Y, I still feel obligated to complain about it.
• Four days after the concert was the 20th Anniversary of the release of Nirvana's Nevermind. There was little, if no, reference to the Anniversary, but Dave (yes, we're on a first name basis, we're from the same part of the country) did tell a story about a Halloween show Nirvana played in Cleveland early on, which was pretty cool. Which brings me to my final thought...

I'm glad that Kurt Cobain killed himself. That came out wrong. What I meant to say is - no, I said it right. Let me explain. Nirvana, and Nevermind in particular, are so unbelievably important to rock music. They brought rock back from the dead, and we'll always have Kurt Cobain's tortured genius to thank for that. I recently listened to an early demo of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and I instantly got chills. Their music was affecting, both personally and in a much broader sense. However, if Kurt Cobain is alive today, I'm pretty sure Dave Grohl never breaks off and starts Foo Fighters. He was in awe of Cobain's talent, and it's pretty hard to say to that guy, "I've got some of my own stuff I'd like to try," break off from a seminal band in rock history, and put out an EP.

When I go to a Foo Fighters concert, it's readily apparent that I'm not in the presence of an artist or a mere musician. Dave Grohl is a flat out rock star. He's larger than life, an icon. You can't explain it. It's like the definition of pornography; you know it when you see it. I can't imagine a world without Foo. It makes me sad to think of it. Songs like "I'll Stick Around", "My Hero", "Everlong", "Learn to Fly", and others, have become instant rock classics. Foo Fighters' songs don't have an agenda or push any particular issue. They're anthemic, but only in that they are symbols of what Rock was and always will be: Emotion and Energy. There are plenty of posers out there, but very few actual rock stars.

Dave Grohl is the last real rock star, and Foo Fighters are the last great rock band. If Kurt Cobain is even the least bit mentally stable, that never happens.

Oh, and thanks to Courtney Love. I'm pretty sure she drove him to it.

Hole sucks, though.