Holy heck! I've seen enough live footage to know I was in for a real rock show and they certainly did not disappoint. The band played a wide selection of songs, old and new, hard and soft. Dave Groh, who suffered from the flu earlier in the week and had to cancel shows, seemed to be fully recovered considering how hard he rocked.
What I didn't expect was Grohl to be so entertaining when he wasn't making music. Grohl was light-hearted and funny. Throughout the show, he wore a childlike smile, which seemed a sharp contrast to the often biting lyrics and intense guitar. He joked with band members and genuinely seemed to like them. And he genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself. He interacted with the audience and called attention to a couple members. One was playing drums on the barrier. Grohl stopped the show to point out this "overzealous fan" and brought down a camera and a mic to capture the moment. He also called attention to Mustache Man, a middle aged man, high in the stands, who waved goodbye to Grohl when he said he had one more song. Grohl easily convinced Mustache Man to stay, putting the spotlight on him and teasing him relentlessly. Despite the intensity with which he plays, Grohl didn't take the band too seriously. He joke about the growing number of musicians. (The was an extra guitarist, keyboardist, violinist, and a guy who plays bells and whistles). Grohl called out the bells and whistles guy, much to his dismay, and coaxed the audience into demanding a triangle solo.
The band continued to tease the audience right up through the encore. When they went backstage, they appeared on camera, teasing the audience with peeks of the setlist. Overall the show was fantastic. They sounded great -- just like they do on the albums, which is always nice to hear in this day and age. The addition of a head banging violinist was awesome and the combination of lightheartedness and intensity is not matched by any band today. The foo fighters are clearly one of the best live bands around.
It was the first show that I've been to at the recently built Reno Event Center. Parking in downtown is obviously a bitch, but the acoustics in the venue are unmatched by any venue in town. I was able to hear all the lyrics and the banter despite the heavy guitars. The crowd was quite young and quite violent. While Against Me played, the crowd around me turned into a violent and scary mosh pit. The conservative gentleman next to me got beat up for pushing the flying bodies away from us. Nice. The crowd settle during the Foo Fighters set, right up until the end and it got a little edgy. It put a damper on the show for sure. On the upside, most bands who play in Reno are faced with an audience in which only a small fraction are actually interested in the show. That was not at all the case on this night. The place was packed and everyone was singing, screaming, head-banging, and fist pumping along. Grohl claims they won't wait another 15 years to come back to Reno. Let's hope he's not just teasing. =)
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