Band of the Week, 5/21: Foo Fighters

Who They Are: Who hasn’t heard of Foo Fighters? For those viewers of this blog who have been living under a rock since 1994, Foo Fighters are a legendary rock band from Seattle. The band formed in the wake of the dissolution of Nirvana, after Kurt Cobain’s suicide. The band’s frontman and lead vocalist, Dave Grohl formerly played drums in Nirvana, and he recorded all the instrument parts on the Foo Fighters debut self-titled full length, but he eventually recruited a full band lineup. The Foo Fighters lineup now features Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, and Taylor Hawkins.

Why they are band of the week: Foo Fighters headlined the second day of The Bamboozle Festival, Saturday, May 19. Taking the stage after the likes of The All-American Rejects, Jimmy Eat World, and My Chemical Romance, the band proved that they were in a different class from those other outfits. Blasting through a two hour set that ran the gamut from little-played favorites from their debut (“Big Me”) to alt-rock megahits from their most recent album, Wasting Light (“Walk”, “Rope”), the band sounded tighter than any of the other performers and had a unique energy to them. Then, they hopped on a helicopter and flew to New York City to perform on Saturday Night Live as the backing band for the legendary Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. All that added up to a pretty eventful Saturday evening for the sure-fire Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. 

The band’s seventh studio album, Wasting Light, was released last year and it was lauded by critics. But it was specifically praised for the style in which it was recorded, which was on analog tapes in Dave Grohl’s garage. The back-to-basics approach allowed for a more raw sound, and was in stark contrast to the computer-manipulated recordings that have become commonplace. Dave Grohl still has something to say to people who are trying to make music. “You don’t need lights and computers, you just need one of these,” said Grohl on stage Saturday, as he held up his guitar. It’s that simple sentence that sums up the Foo Fighters. Well, that and the explosion of distortion- “Monkey Wrench”- that followed it.