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Foo Fighters - Washlight

I came across this story on Google News a little while ago:

Apparently, while performing a song from their new album Wasting Light, Dave Grohl (of my favorite contemporary band, the Foo Fighters) caught somebody picking a fight in the audience.

Grohl stopped the performance mid song to curse out the man who started the fight and have him kicked out of the arena. "You don't fight at my show, asshole," he started saying, "I don't put up with that bullshit. You people come here to have a good time, and that guy can fuck off!"

A video of Grohl's outburst is provided below:

Dave Grohl kicks out a brawling attendee at a Foo Fighters concert.

Kudos, Mr. Grohl.

Now, I couldn't find a video of the actual fight, so I have no idea if the guy who got kicked out actually instigated it, or just how bad the brawl was. But if it got the attention of the lead singer in the middle of a moshpit, then it must've been pretty bad.

I just hope the asshole brawler didn't force Grohl to stop the band during a song like My Hero or Everlong. Ah man, if I was at a Foo Fighters concert (I hope I can go to one some day), and some dickhead made the band stop during My Hero or Everlong, I would be pissed. If the guy singled out by Grohl was the instigator of the fight, I hope that not only do they kick him out, but I also hope that they get his name a photograph and blacklist the guy from future concerts.

A brief review of Wasting Light

I had planned on writing a review of Wasting Light shortly after it was released back in mid-April, but I never got around to it. So I'll give a few thoughts here while I'm on the topic of the Foo Fighters!

It's a pretty good album.

It feels very much like a microcosm of the Foo Fighters' career. Some of the songs - such as track 4: "White Limmo" - go back to their loud, shout-singing style that hasn't really been heard since their first and second studio albums. Although I generally prefer their more melodic and harmonious songs, it was still kind of nice to hear this sound again. It's something we haven't heard from the band for a while.

Other songs sound like their more modern work. Sixth and seventh tracks, "These Days" and "Back & Forth", sound like they could have come right out of their last album Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace or double-CD-album In Your Honor (which I affectionately call "the buffalo-butt album").

So there's a variety of sounds in this album to prevent it from getting monotonous. Every song has a unique sound, feel, and tempo. The downside to this, though, is that the wider variety of song styles means that it is more likely that people will find things they don't like about the album. If you don't like the shout-singing style, then you might just skip past "White Limmo" entirely. And if you prefer the higher-intensity stuff, then you might be disappointed with the more mellow "Dear Rosemary". Many of the songs on the album also swing internally between higher-intensity and more mellow sections, making it hard for people who don't like one style or another to sit through the whole song.

Personally, I don't mind (and actually enjoy) the more varied sound, so I really like the album. It's still a pale shadow compared to The Colour and the Shape and There is Nothing Left to Lose, but it holds its own with any of the band's other studio albums.

Perhaps the albums greatest downside is the lack of a real "hit" song in the collection. There's some good radio songs, like "Rope", "Bridge Burning", "Alandria", and the aforementioned "Back &Forth". But no single song stands out in the album and makes me say "I want to listen to Wasting Light right now, like some of the band's other hit singles like "My Hero", "Everlong", "Learn To Fly", "All My Life", "Best of You", and so on.

The real shame though, is that these likely-to-be-radio-songs aren't even the best songs on the album. I think my favorite songs on the album might actually be two of the later tracks, "Miss the Misery"" (which contains the album title lyric "wasting light") and "I Should Have Known". This is no surprise from the Foo Fighters. A few of their other albums contain (in my opinion) some hidden gems that sadly don't get any radio time. Like "New Way Home" (from The Colour and the Shape's), "M.I.A." (from There Is Nothing Left to Lose), "Come Back" (from One By One), "Cold Day in the Sun" (from In Your Honor - disc 2), and "Statues" and "Home" (from Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace), these great songs are probably never going to be heard by anybody but the fans who buy the albums.

Ah well, I guess that's our reward for loyally purchasing the albums!

A live video of the best song on this album: "I Should Have Known".

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Comments (2) -

07/13/2011 07:37:47 #

LOL, I think you are a bit too harsh on the "brawler".  Since we don't know really how it started, what was going on exactly, and I'm sure the "brawler" didn't pay that much money thinking to himself "Hey, I'm going to pay these outrageous ticket prices, go to the show, and then kick some guy's butt so that I can get kicked out and possibly go to jail..."--being "banned" for life is a bit much, but they could and probably did 86 him (so you probably did get your wish).

07/13/2011 07:49:58 #

Very true. Keep in mind that I said "if he was the instigator."

In situations like this, you often get a "he said - she said" thing going. And if it's not clear from video tape or witness testimony that any one person is in the wrong, then all parties should be given the benefit of the doubt. But unless this guy had a REALLY good reason for starting a brawl (i.e. some guy was groping his girlfriend, he was being mugged, etc), then I stand by my statement that he should be blacklisted. "But he called my mom fat" or "But he spilled beer on my jacket" just doesn't cut it in my book.

If the guy who got kicked out did have a reasonable justification for starting a fight, then I think Grohl and the band owe him an apology, and should try to make up for it by offering him free tickets to a later show. I'd even throw in air fare if it was necessary.

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