A week into January. Need to kick it into high gear less I find myself doing my top 5 list for 2015....in 2016? But I digress. I sort of feel guilty about where I have this "moment" slotted. I feel guilty having to answer to my fellow base of fans. Just like there's "no crying in baseball", I suppose there can be no such thing as "guilt in writing"?! In ANY other year, this moment, this band would find itself entrenched solidly at the top. It was just a bad year to try and crack my top 3. I've also lumped a few seperate moments into one great big, defining one. I will simply call it "The Year of Foo".
The year of Foo actually began in November of 2014. Sonic Highways was released. And their corresponding tour was announced and I found myself waiting in the longest serpentine line inside of the Excel center in St. Paul that can be imagined. General admission tix secured, I commenced with my normal holiday warfare inside the mall, then in January sunk into the epic and grandiose album that Dave and the gang dropped on us back in November. I mentioned "moments" that make up the whole. Let me give you a quick rundown of the crazy year as it pertained to the Foo Fighters. Release album. At same time, release acclaimed series/documentary bearing the same name on HBO. Do a series of "flash"concerts in support. Grass roots shows in tiny venues such as "The Cubby Bear" in Chicago. Foo fighters in venues such as these is almost criminal. An assault on the senses. Make no mistake, this is an arena and stadium Rock band. So putting them in small venues is to open your senses for an all out assault. I had the privilege and fortune of seeing them in such a venue before they got huge, and wow. Anyway, tangents aside, the band embarked on an aggressive and well received tour of Australia and Europe. During which, Dave breaks a leg. Literally, and figuratively. I have to mention that Dave finished the damn show?! The rest of the euro dates were unavoidably postponed. We in the states wondered if it meant the cancellation of the US dates as well. I've wondered often how many bands would've continued. In all honesty. How many? It's futile to try and guess, but I don't think there are many. Frontman breaks his leg is a pretty legit excuse for taking a vacation. Well, Foo Fighters and Dave F'ing Grohl didn't take a vacation. US dates on. The birth of the coolest, kick-ass, state of the art rock and roll throne?! The "break a leg" tour was born and by dave's own admission, the boys rocked them out. Some of the craziest and epic shows and Dave was sitting for most of it? Really? Again, how many Rock stars, egomaniacs, would allow us to peek into that vulnerability? Dave is special. He's really really special. Once in a lifetime kind of special. Back to the timeline of 2015. I'll briefly skip August and the show at the X. So, tour winds down. And just as the year is coming to an end, the Foo's decide to release and give away, an EP titled "Saint Cecelia". A very solid release that is a kaleidoscope of their career. Incredibly, the songs seemingly span the 20 years of existence. Each song invokes memories of different "moments" in time. Incredible.
August 2015. A sold out Excel center. General admission with my oldest son, Morgan. Roughy 15-20 feet from the stage. The crowd dripping with anticipation and adrenaline. It's the God damn Foo's for crying out loud. Even though I'd seen snippets of the opening on YouTube, I was still giddy as a kid on Christmas morning as the lights dimmed and that huge "Foo" tapestry began rippling and shaking. That curtain was ripped away, Dave screamed at the top of his lungs from his throne, and the coronation commenced. Remember that scene from "Alnost Famous"? One of my top 5 as it were. Where a drug induced Russell is perched on the roof of that teenage boys home in Kansas? The throng looks up to him with eagerness. With reverence. And he pauses, then utters that famous line..."I am a golden God"!! Well...I was waiting for Dave to come off his throne, scream that he is indeed THE golden fucking God, and assume his rightful place in the messiah-ship. He never uttered the line, but, a golden God all the same.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Friday, January 1, 2016
My "top 5" music moments, 2015. Part 1
Well, the end of another year is upon me. Upon us. This is that time where columnists, wanna-be journalists, and yes, even part time bloggers churn out those annoying "Top 5" lists. I've always been fond of them, myself, thanks mainly to John Cusack in "High Fidelity". A good buddy of mine, Jason Loreti, and I kept up to the minute lists of our top 5 bands. Truth be told, I still do. But....this is not my top 5 band blog. This is a series of blogs, sermons, if you please?! My personal top 5 music moments of 2015. A combo platter of stuff pertaining to me on a personal level, and stuff that's more...universal? My musical "years" are generally nowhere near....legendary status? I don't travel the country, or the globe, in search of the epic show, by the epic band....in the epic venue. Not that I wouldn't mind doing that stuff. I'm definitely envious of some of my u2 family who galavant across the pond and back to see the boys in the Emerald Isle. Or, even the ones who see them not just in their hometown, but the hometowns of like a dozen of our mates? Hats off to them, but I just never have had the means or the right set of circumstances to take the summer or fall off? My aforementioned friend Jason has had years that would summon the term "epic". Bonaroo, huge outdoor festivals, venturing to see obscure bands in obscure places....no, I have to downsize my parameters quite a bit. That being said, 2015 was a pretty solid year.
With no further delay, my #5 music moment or event of the year is.....The Rolling Stones. This will sound crazy, but 2015 was the year I discovered them. Uh, yeah...I just said that. I never really got into them. All the years of musical enlightenment and I just never dug the vibe. Something about Jagger's voice prohibited them from making a dent in my musical pantheon. Fast forward to 2015. The "zip code" tour. And Minneapolis was one of the lucky few stops. My son Morgan, who has even more diverse tastes/loves than I do, badly wanted to go. So, tickets were bought. Muey expensive I have to add. In prep for the show, at "The Bank", on the campus of the university of Minnesota, I dove into the Stones deep catalogue. And, a love affair was cultivated. I listened to, and fell head over heels with the bands early efforts. My father grew up in the hey day of the stones, and listening to Satisfaction, Jumpin Jack Flash, and Paint it Black did what great music does. It took me to that time when my dad was a young and impressionable kid making his way in the 60's. I watched documentaries and was awed by just how big they were. The stones were the devil to the Beatles angel? I was blown away by the magnitude and importance of their shows. Altamont speedway. Wow. Rock and roll should have some edge. Some danger. And the stones personified that bad boy image. I'm sure there were countless parents who were outraged that their daughters were holed up in their rooms blaring the Rolling Stones, all the while entertaining sexual fantasies with Mick and Keith.
When the time came for my Virginal Stones show, I was more than ready. Better late than never? Oh how fun to go back in time and jump into the peace and flower loving fray, but seeing the "nursing home" version would have to suffice. Who doesn't love the spectacle of a rock show. And wow, what a spectacle that we were privy to on a rain soaked summer night. The pyrotechnics, the lights and imagery, the diverse crowd. I saw A veritable history of the band on the backs of the crowd. Tshirts from every tour, motorcycle clubs showing up adorned with stones garb. But, what made the night was the legend that is and will always be mick Jagger. Adam Levine croons about "moving like Jagger"? Mick is mind blowing live. He was everywhere. If I'm feeding myself at 70, it'll be welcomed. Mick held 55,000+ in the palm of his hand. By the time the final song of the night, you can't always get what you ask for, was being sung with the accompanying local choir, church was in session and I was a disciple. So yeah, I discovered some band called "The Rolling Stones" in 2015. I think they have a bright future.
With no further delay, my #5 music moment or event of the year is.....The Rolling Stones. This will sound crazy, but 2015 was the year I discovered them. Uh, yeah...I just said that. I never really got into them. All the years of musical enlightenment and I just never dug the vibe. Something about Jagger's voice prohibited them from making a dent in my musical pantheon. Fast forward to 2015. The "zip code" tour. And Minneapolis was one of the lucky few stops. My son Morgan, who has even more diverse tastes/loves than I do, badly wanted to go. So, tickets were bought. Muey expensive I have to add. In prep for the show, at "The Bank", on the campus of the university of Minnesota, I dove into the Stones deep catalogue. And, a love affair was cultivated. I listened to, and fell head over heels with the bands early efforts. My father grew up in the hey day of the stones, and listening to Satisfaction, Jumpin Jack Flash, and Paint it Black did what great music does. It took me to that time when my dad was a young and impressionable kid making his way in the 60's. I watched documentaries and was awed by just how big they were. The stones were the devil to the Beatles angel? I was blown away by the magnitude and importance of their shows. Altamont speedway. Wow. Rock and roll should have some edge. Some danger. And the stones personified that bad boy image. I'm sure there were countless parents who were outraged that their daughters were holed up in their rooms blaring the Rolling Stones, all the while entertaining sexual fantasies with Mick and Keith.
When the time came for my Virginal Stones show, I was more than ready. Better late than never? Oh how fun to go back in time and jump into the peace and flower loving fray, but seeing the "nursing home" version would have to suffice. Who doesn't love the spectacle of a rock show. And wow, what a spectacle that we were privy to on a rain soaked summer night. The pyrotechnics, the lights and imagery, the diverse crowd. I saw A veritable history of the band on the backs of the crowd. Tshirts from every tour, motorcycle clubs showing up adorned with stones garb. But, what made the night was the legend that is and will always be mick Jagger. Adam Levine croons about "moving like Jagger"? Mick is mind blowing live. He was everywhere. If I'm feeding myself at 70, it'll be welcomed. Mick held 55,000+ in the palm of his hand. By the time the final song of the night, you can't always get what you ask for, was being sung with the accompanying local choir, church was in session and I was a disciple. So yeah, I discovered some band called "The Rolling Stones" in 2015. I think they have a bright future.
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