Some’ll argue Dave Grohl shoulda stayed behind the drum kit where he belongs. But he makes a damn good frontman in the old-school stadium rocker tradition if Saturday’s sold-out show at the ACC is any indication.
Thrashing his hair around, striking the requisit guitar god poses (foot on monitor, face buried over the fret board wailing away while standing atop the piano) and racing along the 50-foot catwalk that jutted from the front of the stage, Grohl proved he knows how to work a room.
And he knows how to get a croiwd riled up, asking the “soft virgin” Foo fans and oldtimers alike if we wanted the lame-o 60-minute show, the kickass 90-minute show or the completely wild two-hour show. By the time the lights went up, the pot smoke had cleared and the band had ripped through arena an thems like Times Like These, Learn To Fly, Everlong, Monkey Wrench, All My Life and Best Of You, it was a good two hours and ten minutes later.
The show was a Rush, literally,m as during drummer Taylor Hawkins solo he was joined by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to rock out on the Rush instrumental YYZ.
Anyway, Grohl’s love of Rush was obvious, as he kept screaming their name throughout the rest of the night.
Grohl also had some props for Stompin’ Tom Connors after somebody shouted his name when Grohl called for requests from the crowd surfers at the foot of the stage.
And the folks in the cheap seats got a great show, too, as the FF set up a semi-acoustic mini set on a circular stage that dropped from the ceiling at the other end of the catwalk. It’s where they performed a crowd-rousing take on My Hero. It’s where percussionist Drew Hester was embarrassed into giving a wicked triangle solo that had Grohl admonishing the crowd Jack Black-like that we bet we wished we hadn’t given that instrument up in grade 3. And it’s where he introduced the smokin’ hot violinist Jessie Greene, who could be the twin sister of the violinist who took the stage with Bon Jovi during their recent ACC stops.
And during the encore, Grohl started telling a story about when he played with his old band – which immediately had evryone hoping he’d throw us a Nirvana bone – but nope, “not that band, my other band,” he said. Which led to a story about when he was in Toronto with his Fugazi-like Washington, DC punk outfit Scream back in 87 and got to play drums for Iggy Pop at a CD release party at the El Mocambo. Great fuckin’ story. Great concert.
