Chickens! Concert Series #13: Foo!

Sorry about the delay on the Foo Fighters post but I wanted to let the shenanigans from the whole Earth Hour/climate change thing run its course. That was pretty sweet I'm going to have to talk about controversial issues more often, they are too much fun to pass up and you encounter so many new and interesting people. Learning is fun! Anyway, on to the Foos.

In a fit of putting my money where my mouth is I bought their new CD (pictured to the left) before the concert. I wasn't too sure about it at first but the more I listened to it the more I liked it. Echos, Silence, Patience, and Grace is the Foos 6th studio album produced in September 2007. Not long after they finished recording this album they played at Live Earth so maybe this isn't too inappropriate a follow up post to the Earth Hour stuff as I thought.

As for the concert, what a kick ass concert! Dave Grohl definitely knows his onions that's for sure! I would see them again in a second. A highlight was the acoustic set played on a platform in the centre of the arena that turned our seats from meh to awesome. There is a bunch (like 16) of YouTube videos featuring this concert from various angles at various points in time. I've decided to pick one at random from the search of "Foo Fighters Saskatoon" that I did and tack it on.

About the band:
Dave Grohl (of course) on vocals, guitar, drums, and piano. He spent 3 and 1/2 years as the drummer for Nirvana but wrote songs on the side the whole time. He formed the band in 1995 naming it after the World War II term "foo fighter" used to by the allied forced to describe UFOs. Dave Grohl played every instrument (except for one guitar part on "X-Static") and sang all the vocals on the Foo Fighters first self titled album;
Taylor Hawkins used to be Alannis Morrisette's touring drummer. He replaced William Goldsmith on drums and percussion in 1997 when Dave Grohl decided to re-record "The Colour and The Shape" album with himself on drums and didn't tell William about it. Taylor also does vocals, piano, and guitar;
Nate Mendel plays base and he's been with the band since the beginning in 1995 when the emocore band he was in (Sunny Day Real Estate) disbanded;
Chris Shiflett replaced Franz Stahl on guitar and vocals in 1999 (who replaced Pat Smear in 1997 but Pat still tours with them). Pat Smear used to be an unofficial member of Nirvana back in the day, when he left the Foos he found his own replacement. Franz Stahl toured with the band for several months but soon left citing creative differences prior their 3rd album. After producing their "There Is Nothing Left To Lose" album (and doing some label jumping). They recruited Chris, initially as a touring guitar minion but then as a full member before the 4th album came out.

The Foos are currently touring with several other members that were brought out for the centre ring portion of the show including Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, Drew Hester, and Jesse Green (this video shows him introducing them in California and complaining about the pot smoke, I highlight this video because he yelled at us for the exact same thing). Drew did a sweet triangle solo. I will forever after lament the lack of triangle solos in rock concerts. Here is the video of the triangle solo from the Edmonton concert (here is the triangle solo from the California concert, ours was better). Hey wait a minute...he told us we were the best city!

p.s. Sorry about the swears.