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.
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