Foo Fighters + The Gaslight Anthem, June 21st 2011, Refshaleøen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Foo Fighters is one of those bands who have managed to achieve that, which most rock bands can only dream of. They have achieved an enormous commercial success without compromising their musical integrity. Dave Grohl and Co. have positioned themselves as a band, which appeals to just about anyone. They are MTV darlings, who at the same time never loosed their face in eyes of their original fans. They've managed to appeal to anyone from MTV teenagers over people who grew up with grunge to die-hard rock /metal fans that idolize the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Now, I've been listening Foo Fighters here and there, especially in 90's, but I never considered myself a Foo Fighters fan. Still I find what they've achieved extremely impressive.

Band's Danish concert was set to take place at Refshaleøen, the same place where Copenhell festival took place only two days earlier and as one of the supporting bands Foo's took the New Jersey darlings The Gaslight Anthem - one of the best and most genuine rock bands to come out in past few years.

It all seemed very good, but then on the day of the gig local promoter informed press that in order to take pictures of the show, photographers will have too sign that infamous Foo Fighters (Lady GaGa?) contract. This contract robs the photographer of ANY rights over the pictures and also binds the webzine/magazine/paper to erase the images 12 months after the concert.
Much like so many others, Metal Revolution refused to take part in this charade and then an hour before the gig local promoter could inform us that the contract will be sacked for this gig. By then it was too late to get hold of our photographer again.

After this mess one couldn't help but think that the fine balance between business/commercialism and art/music had tipped over and Foo's weren't so perfect at balancing it anyway.


The Gaslight Anthem took the stage at 7.25 PM accompanied by dreadful sound and band who looked like they were about to fall apart. I have seen the band three times before both in Denmark, USA and latest just few weeks ago in Germany at Rock Im Park Festival and for some reason the band never lived up to the potential of their music, but they always played good gigs. This evening in Copenhagen it was a whole another story. The band, with exception of bassist Alex Levine, was just out of it. Most noticeably, frontman Brian Fallon and guitarist Alex Rosamilia looked like they were hangover and intoxicated at the same time. At first it was funny, but few minutes later it became just basically pitiful. They were so intoxicated that they couldn't play, Fallon couldn't sing and to top it with bad sound this was nothing short of a disaster.

And what a pity it was to see that band in such a shape. The crowd didn't really know the band and the band's performance didn't really win anyone over, so the atmosphere in front of the stage was not that good.
As the concert progressed (read in the last third of the concert) the things did get somewhat better, the band woke up some (when it comes to playing not behaving on stage) and the sound got noticeably better, but even this couldn’t change the fact that the highlight of Jersey boys' one hour long gig was Fallon's joke about two coins rolling down the street.
[2/6]


Thanks to the bitter experience with corporate side of Foo Fighters before the gig it was with sour taste in mouth that I welcomed Foo Fighters to the stage.
And then they came out and from the start made me forget anything about that photo contract episode. They simply came out and played “Bridge Burning” the opener from their new album Wasting Light and form that point on there was no coming back.

Without really stopping the band played six extremely potent songs, sounding good, looking good and just spreading joy by playing with joy. And what a band it is; tight, energetic, smiling and just rocking.
The crowd was into it and if they would settle for a moment, Grohl would get them going by gesturing. The songs themselves were often arranges in such a way that the crowd just couldn't help but get going all the time. The band would make break-downs in the songs to maintain the dynamics and while the repentance of this trick sometimes felt bit too much, there is no doubt that it worked extremely well live.

And as for the band, there are basically only superlatives that can describe them. Starting with Grohl he is a rocker, entertainer, musician and just fine example of a rock frontman. It doesn't get any less impressive, taking into consideration that the man is a drummer form a grunge band. While he is a very good drummer, there is a long way from a drummer in Nirvana to fronting a rock band. There aren't many drummers who can pull that off. I mean, can you imagine Lars Ulrich fronting a band?  Grohl is a very good frontman, very good indeed and he keeps the audience in his hand. He is energetic, witty, charming and the catwalk in reaching some 20 meters into the crowd was just perfect place for him. Chris Shiflett is elegant on lead guitar and Pat Smear is precise and looking like a smiley. Nate Mendel is creating a solid and at times interesting bass base and then there is Taylor Hawkins behind the drums.
Landing a drummer job in the band where the frontman is Dave Grohl is hard enough, but Hawkins takes it to a whole new level. He has that same energy and feel that made Grohl so interesting while he was in Nirvana, but he there is so much more to this drummer. His technical abilities are impressive and his ability to make the midsections of the songs so interesting is worth a gold for a band like Foo's. He puts all of his energy, feel and all of this body into every hit, be it a straight pattern, flashy tom-tom solo or something as banal as just hitting a hit-hat in a simple 4/4.

The setlist was perfect, nothing more, nothing less – mixing crowd-pleasers (“Learn To Fly”, “Times Like These”, “My Hero” etc.), more obscure cuts (“Skin And Bones”, “Let It Die These Days” etc.) and fine cowers in their own right (“Young Man Blues” and “Tie Your Mother Down”) There was something there for everyone in 17.000 strong crowd.

The band never left the stage for an encore, they just played on. ”We could say good night now, but instead let's play a fucking Queen song” Grohl stated before the band played this enjoyable live song form British legends.They closed with “Everlong”, this evening played in a original version opposed to the one-man version they play so often. For some reason live, this song never has that same flow the studio version has. Perhaps it's mostly due to guitar sound and levels and it's pity the vocals were too low, but nevertheless "Everlong" is a perfect closing song.

The two hour ten minutes gig was basically a constant highlight and Foo's not only rocked all the way through, but they also displayed great musicianship as well as created a lesson in how to keep such a huge and nonetheless diverse crowd on toes, all the way through.

I met Foo Fighters with bitter taste in my mouth tonight and then they did what true rock bands do, they came out and played a hell of a gig. And in the end that's all that matters – not ridiculous agents, contracts, promotions or whatever. The Foo's came and did what rock band is supposed to do no matter if they play a local club with couple of dozens of people or sold out Wembley Stadium.
[6/6]