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Live Review
by SashaS
23-11-2002
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| Foo Fighters' Rock-mojo working overtime |
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Live: Foo Fighters
Wembley Arena, London
Friday, November 22, 2002
Foo Fighters tattoo concrete passionately
Starting a show behind a porous curtain exhibiting printed (black-on-white) ‘Tired Of You’ lyrics with gigantic overprint of the bands ‘initials’ in red, Foo Fighters indicate a very special show, the first of the capital’s two-nighter on their maiden arena tour. The band would admit to jitters at the aftershow’s meet’n’greet but their way to deal with it was to go for the barbed-wire – neck-first.
Kicking the evening with the greatest single success (Top 5 in Britain), ‘All My Life’, Dave Grohl and his band of rockers, duel fear with a loud standoff. To make them bridge the psychological barrier between theatres and the arena-doms, they had the stage reduced by black drapes; within three songs it would be dispensed with and the entire length and depth of the stage deployed for a show that should go in the annals as one of the greatest. This date appeared to be as easy as an American pie, on the final count.
From the staccato guitar of the opening song the band’s been plugged into a euphoria that witnesses not only Grohl jumping up and about but the bookish-bassist’s headbanging; having seen the band on more than several occasions, Nate Mandell has never demonstrated so much adrenaline in public! Drummer Taylor Hawkins is the usual powerhouse of truly back-boning the sound with Chris Shiflett delivering some incredible guitar parts; no surprise Grohl praises him as the best six-stringer they’ve ever had.
Songs from the current album, ‘One By One’, combined with the older tracks, drain our emotions and exhaust our energy reserves mercilessly: ‘Have It All’, ‘Stacked Actors’, ‘Times Like These’ (introduced as “The second bestest song we ever wrote!”), ‘The One’, ‘Monkey Wrench’, (almost acoustic) ‘Tired Of You’, ‘Halo’, ‘Come Back’…
Foo Fighters have become a verité force majeure that captures Rock magic you don’t wanna get out of! Rock’n’Roll is a language as much as it is an attitude; the Foos have both in abundance and to the level of the band Grohl admires the most (Led Zeppelin), as well as the ones he’s played with.
Tonight belongs to the rocktastically great Foos! And, it does smell like the XXI century.
Tour dates (remaining):
23 November – Wembley Arena, London
24 November – The Citrus, Edinburgh
25 November – SECC, Glasgow
26 November – Auntie Annie’s, Belfast
27 November – Point, Dublin
SashaS
23-11-2002
Foo Fighters’ single ‘Times Like These’ is released 06 January 2003 on Roswell/BMG
Foo Fighters’ album ‘One By One’ is available now on Roswell/BMG
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