Foo Fighters’ return to live work is guaranteed rockdom!

When Foo Fighters return for five-title encore someone shouts for Dave Grohl to show his tits! The mainman’s reply to this display of Irish (humorous) impertinence is drop-to-the-floor quip of “Do I have to show my tits at every gig like Courtney Love?!” That was cherry-on-top to a warm-up evening for their performance at the Irish Witness Festival that truly rocked the rarely-used theatre in Dublin.

It’s been rather a forlorn year without much Foo-activity due to the drummer Taylor Hawkins’s ‘chemical imbalance’ that was additionally marred for the band by Grohl’s legal battle with the widow Cobain over the control of Nirvana’s legacy. It did poison the band’s creativity that necessitated recording the new album twice and forced Grohl to find solace in guest-drumming for Queens Of The Stone Age. But now, the four riders of rock-mastery have sorted/side-stepped these issues and have (almost) finished the album number four, ‘One By One’, due out on 21 October.

And, it is the album’s opening track (and the first single), ‘All My Life’, that logs the evening on the power edge: instruments are blasting – Hawkins is a serious energy-plant behind this tight entity – and even the bassist Nate Mandel (whose stage ‘antics’ make him appear like a younger brother to the recently departed John ‘Who’ Entwistle) can’t resist a wee display of adrenaline while Grohl is happily leading us into mental states with his attitude, body-language and an animated vocal style.

The stalls of this venue, half-the-size version of Brixton Academy, are like a storm with moshers crowding, bumping, grinding and occasionally surfing… A small selection of new songs includes a slow and future ‘lighters-up’ epic ‘Tired’ that is such a nod to the legendary band that suddenly ends 8-plus years of Nirvana-denial and it is brilliant to see Grohl coming to terms with his past. That is a rare instance of emo-demo because this band proves that – belligerence is a lingo in this musical expression for the post-traumatic youth.

A very encouraging sign is that there were just a couple of Nirvana T-shirts on parade while in the past it used to be an overwhelming sea that could only depress the band members… Aside that Love remark, Grohl doesn’t talk much and concentrates on delivering a show that is generous 1 hour and 45 minutes of faves such as ‘Monkey Wrench’, ‘This Is A Call’, ‘Stacked Actors’, ‘Aurora’…

If passion, consummate song-craft and playing to kill for were everything, than Foos should be bigger than Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park combined! The Foos are back, stronger, more au fait with their music and ready to rock us back to pleasure. One by one song, one by one album but to be taken as eagerly as if favoured medication!

(This shaw was recorded for a future DVD release with additional backstage, home-vids and interviews regarding the new album.)