by Jesse Davidson
Show review: Dave Grohl’s Birthday Club
Venue: The Forum
Date: 1/10/15
Tickets: $50 (before service fees)
“Ladies and Gentlemen…you’re gonna shit.”- Dave Grohl
And I did. Multiple times. This became a reoccurring theme for the week. It started when this show was announced on Tuesday for the following Saturday night. Dave Grohl’s Rock n Roll Birthday Club! Mr. Grohl had summed my experience for the whole week and I didn’t even hear about it until that night. I was on the fence about getting tickets due to budgetary constraints. At least that’s what my head told me. But thankfully my girlfriend made the right decision and bought tickets for the both of us. I shit. Multiple times. It just goes to show that in life, especially in matters related to rock n’ roll, you can’t get wrapped in what your head wants. Fuck your head. If “God Gave Rock n Roll to You”, as a soon to be relevant person once sang, then you should go with your gut. It’s better than sitting at home leading a life of watching cat videos. Kittehs can wait. Rock can’t.
Rain plagued the 405 freeway from the start of it until we parked at the Forum. It’s almost appropriate given Dave’s Seattle roots that we were treated to a slew of Seattle weather. Along with the rain, there also seemed to be a quiet excitement in the air and being carried by each person entering the Forum that night. It could be argued that any arena show has an air of nervous excitement about it. But this is isn’t any arena show. This is the Foo Fighters. Surprise Foo Fighters no less. They are a rock band, in my opinion, that does it right. They follow traditions in rock n’ roll while also being able to do their own thing. Back in the day, Alice Cooper(foreshadowing) released School’s Out . The album folded out into an old-fashioned school desk and record itself was wrapped in a pair of panties. Foo Fighters released Wasting Light in 2011 and included a piece of the master tape in all the initial copies of the album. The Foo Fighters also play for two and a half- three hours at typical shows with no encore and as late as they want to. They only charged $50 for any seat at this show and gave $10 from each ticket to MusiCares, Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, and the Rock School Scholarship Fund. They’re doing it right. People can feel that. When we approached the gate were handed cards that said we are now members of Dave’s Birthday Club, I knew we were in for some of that magic.
This anticipation carried over until the start of the show. Given that we had about an hour or show before show time, I started talking with the people next to us. One of whom was also from the Antelope Valley. Small world. During this conversation, I also found out that the Foo Fighters had posted videos from KISS, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Zakk Wylde, and a few others. The lights go down and the band runs to the stage in the center of the arena and start vamping on an A chord.
“HEYYYYYYY!” Dave Grohl yells. The crowd yells back
“HEYYYYYYY!”
“Welcome to the craziest fucking night of your entire life.”
Dave Grohl promised he had friends stopping by and he didn’t disappoint. “Ladies and gentlemen, PAUL STANLEY FROM KISS!” Not bad before the show has even started. His hair was majestic as the spotlight operators seated at the end of my section hit him with a blinding light. He sauntered up to the microphone like his usual Stanley self. “HOW YOU DOIN?! ITS DAVE’S BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!” And then proceeded give the crowd jazz hands then to go into Detroit Rock City. I’m not a KISS fan but that is a pretty badass way to start a show. After the song, the band immediately transitions into a vamp. Taylor Hawkins pounding away on the stadium backbeat. Paul Stanley does his thing, “COME ON! ARE YOU READAAAAAAAY! I want you to go HEYYYYY HEY HEY HEEEEEEY YEAH!” I’m not a KISS fan but I’ve always wanted the big stadium rock moment led by Paul and I got it. No disappointments. After the vamp, they transitioned into “Do You Love Me”.
At the beginning ,Dave Grohl said we weren’t getting a Foo Fighters show. As the night went on this simply wasn’t the case. The Foos played a variety of their own original material including most of their big hits. Songs like “All My Life”, “The Pretender”, “My Hero”, “Times Like These”, “Learn to Fly”, “Everlong“ and “Monkey Wrench”. They also played a fair amount of tunes from Wasting Light including “Rope”, “Arlandria”, and “White Limo”. Two songs that caught me off guard were “Cold Day in the Sun” written by Taylor Hawkins and “This is a Call” off the self-titled first album. All of these songs plus new tunes from Sonic Highways make for a great concert by itself. When you ad in the numerous guests playing at the show, it makes for something incredibly special. During one of their original tunes, Dave asked everyone light up the band with their phones. Everyone either turned the flashlight function on their phone or simply held it up. Then made everyone turn them off and back on again. Not only was it a great visual but also in a subtle way, it made cell phones at concerts, usually a distraction and disconnect for an audience use this same device to make everyone participate in the show. Fantastic.
Dave’s Birthday Club continued in full swing cycling back and forth between original Foos tunes and an epic Chevy Metal cover set. The whole night was like The Blob of rock n’ roll. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any bigger, it did. The next special guest was Tenacious D and Slash. The only thing more majestic than Paul Stanley’s hair that night was Jack Black’s tie die t-shirt with a giant tiger smack dab in the middle of it. He then proceeded to serenade Dave, followed by thousands concert goers, in singing Happy Birthday to Mr. Grohl. Hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling and flooded the stage. The band counted off and went into the first four bars of “Immigrant Song”. Jack Black provided vocal styling over the top the Led Zeppelin classic in a rendition that hadn’t been heard that beautifully since he sang it in School of Rock. The next special guest was Alice Cooper. This was an artist that touched a nerve. He was one of my earliest inspirations as a musician and one of my favorite concerts of all time. Seeing him come out and sing “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen” brought back a nostalgic feeling I haven’t felt in a long time. Continuing with special guests was Nick Oliveri singing the Roky Erickson song “Two Headed Dog”, which was also featured in the Austin episode of Sonic Highways. Zakk Wylde was the next special guest to lead the charge. This gave lead guitarist Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel, and guitarist Pat Smear a chance to have a quick break after about an hour and a half of performing. The new power trio of Taylor Hawkins on drums, Dave Grohl on bass, and Zakk Wylde on guitar and vocals emerged and pounded the classic Sabbath tunes “N.I.B” and “Faries Wear Boots”. A few songs later Perry Farrell ran his way to the stage like a gazelle and sand a fantastic version of “Mountain Song” and an improvised version of “Miss You”. I say improvised because there seemed to be some confusion on stage over who would sing The Rolling Stones classic. This was a minor detail because I was too busy dancing along to care about lyrical misunderstandings.
These performances we’re awesome moments but the next guest defined the show for me. The band starts jamming on New Orleans style riff. Dave says, “This is my friend Troy!” and look down to see Trombone Shorty walking out on the runway. I had only recently become familiar with his playing on Sonic Highways. He came out, walked out to the mic, and started playing. It was something really special. It wasn’t just a great artist playing classic songs. He was crafting something out of thin air. He weaved a piece of music from nothing. At one point, it seemed as though he lost himself and began to fire audible missiles of soul from his trombone directly at the audience. Aimed at the hearts and minds of everyone in the arena. Toward the end of his performance, he held out a note for a minute and a half, continuously breathing and playing leaving everyone including the Foo Fighters in awe. I think this was his way to come back to Earth. It was just something truly unique was literally a magic moment.
Then there was David Lee Roth. This is not a slight on Mr. Roth in any way shape or form. He just happened to be the next special guest after Trombone Shorty. Whether you like him or not, Diamond Dave gets his own category. Whether it’s good or bad is a matter of opinion. Of course after Dave announced Dave, the crowd went wild. Diamond Dave comes strutting out in semi-cheetah jeans yelling “CAN YOU HEAR ME!” He kept pointing at Taylor seemingly wanting him to kick off the first song. Eventually Dave just yells, “MOVES LIKE JAGGER, MOTHAFUCKA! PLAY THE SOOOOOOOOOONG!” Which sends the Foos into “Panama”. In Southern California, Van Halen tunes are like old hymns everyone knows. They are also hymns best sung in giant arenas. So when the two are combined and sung by the man who helped pen them, you could feel the air of the Forum change. After fierce guitar playing, karate kicks supplied by Mr. Roth, and joy had by all, Diamond Dave set up the next song.
“Can we take it away one more time? Its kind of a theme song and we’ll pass the torch on to because I think everybody here tonight wants just a little bit if not the whole ballgame, Everybody Wants SOOOOOOOOOOME!” The band looks slightly confused as Grohl replied, “I don’t know Dave, I Ain’t Talkin’ About Love” With the usual Roth wisdom he replied, “It’s all pizza babe. It doesn’t matter what’s on top. Its all fucking great.” When the band went into “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” as planned, Roth subtly threw in, “You don’t pay me to remember the words baby.”
After Roth left the stage the brought up an all star ending with Lemmy, Slash, and Zakk Wylde to play a Chuck Berry classic “Let it Rock” It was good to see Lemmy in rocking form again after his health scares in the past few years. Although the song started off somewhat shaky, I don’t think it was anybody’s fault. The night was about jamming and having fun playing music with friends. These friends just happen to play in some of the biggest rock bands of all time. So little mistakes like that are inconsequential compared to the bigger picture of the evening. Grohl even joked it felt like a giant keg party and that feeling couldn’t be more accurate.
This was truly one of the most incredible shows I’ve ever attended. The Foos started at 8:30 and ended a few minutes after midnight. No intermission. Dave Grohl screamed until his voice was hoarse. The band put their all into it and pulled out all the stops to create a great experience. The best part about it was that there were no huge sets, special effects, giant screens, back up dancers, or any other nonsense. The draw was no frills rock and roll. The special guests weren’t announced. Just the promise of a great, loud rock show. Of course I’d be a fool to sit here and critique all the singing and playing because something else struck more of a chord in me. This show really took me through the paces of my musical evolution. Alice Cooper, one of my first influences when I was little kid. Slash, Tenacious D, and Van Halen for my middle school/early band years. Black Sabbath/Zakk Wylde for my high school metal years. Jane’s Addiction for my discovery of 90’s music in my senor year. Lastly, Trombone Shorty for my delving into Soul and Jazz during my college years.
Of course, no show is without its downsides. As amazing of a show as we experienced, you would still find people who don’t have the rock n’ roll spirit. How anyone could sit and be on various social media while all this happens in front of you? Apparently the gentleman in front of me could. The worst (unfortunately) was a young kid sitting behind me. He looked as though he wasn’t enjoying himself at all. Arms crossed. Complaining about his seat and where he and his parents would sit next time. As a young kid, I would have lost my shit if I saw this show. I’m a grown man and I still lost my shit. Multiple times. The majority of people looked as though they did as well. This negative spirit doesn’t help rock n’ roll in anyway shape or form. I hope bands from the Foo Fighters to local DIY rock groups bring rise to a new renaissance bringing the importance back on the music. Sending this texting entitlement away. I dance at shows, I sweat at shows, I’ll smell worse than you, and I’m not afraid to have fun.
Happy Birthday Dave.