Afoostic times two
This past weekend kicked off with the Thursday afternoon arrival of my boy Patrick C. Harrell from the ATL and his good buddy Steve "El Duque" Hernandez from LA. I blew out of work a bit early and hooked up with these two for a couple of cold guys at The Transfer, just down the block from home. From there we grabbed a pizza, headed back to the hizee to meet up with So! and then ran down to BART where we hopped the train with Justin & Kristen. Destination: Downtown Berkeley for nite 1 of the Foo Fighters "Afoostic" tour at Berkeley Community Theatre.
Lucky for us that we figured out beforehand that since the venue is on the Berkeley High Campus, there's no drinkin' allowed in the BCT at all. Given that we were lookin' at a 2 hour plus show, we made a quick pit stop close by at Jupiter for a few microbrews before heading in.
I'd never been in to the BCT before, and although it was intimate, it was much larger than I had expected. The balcony was pushed pretty far back, but we had 5th row, so no complaints there. The only complaints that I do have are 1) that the dude to my immediate right (which was formerly So!s immediate right until she made me swap seats with her ;o) thought he could sing just like Dave Grohl, belting out songs all nite long, and 2) that it was Georgia hot and pasty all up in that place. Now, I know the Berkely phreaks don't want to use air conditioning for fear of polluting the environment and all, but open some friggin' windows or turn on some fans (or serve ice cold beers) for crissakes.
Anyhoo, the Foos played and the Foos kicked some ass. The lineup for the show consisted of either a solo Dave with acoustic guitar strumming out some of the quieter tracks, or a full on 8 piece band, that included more guitars and a violin in addition to the regular Foos. The band pretty much played the 2nd disc of "In Your Honor" in it's entirety, and then picked and chose select tracks from their other albums. The hands down highlight track of the evening was a rendition of "Floaty" from the Foos' eponymous debut album. For this song, Dave handed the mic over to Petra Haden, who is their touring violinist. I wasn't so sure about this move until the band led in and she started singing. As soon as she opened her mouth, my jaw hit the floor and I picked it up about 4 minutes later. What a crazy, amazing voice... the only word I can think of to describe it is angelic. Definitely a good choice for vocalist on that trac. Other songs that really stuck out were "Friend of a Friend" about the dudes in Nirvana, and "Razor", which Dave played all by himself. Give that one a listen sometime and imagine playing guitar and singing at the same time. I'm no musician, but that crap doesn't sound easy to me. At all.
When music wasn't being played, the show turned in to the Dave Grohl comedy hour. Homeboy can tell some hilarious stories and totally feeds off of the crowd. "Weeds and hotdogs", "it's like a goddamn Cypress Hill show in here", "Tiny Dancer is the bane of my existence", things he'd like to do to Petra... will all tickle yer funny bone if you were in attendance.
A jammin' acoustic orchestra mixed with laughs? I can dig it. In fact, we dug it so much that PHarrell, El Duque and myself went back for round 2 the next nite. And once again, the Foos brought it.
Here's a pretty good review of both shows from The Willits News: Dave Grohl finds nirvana in acoustic show
Check the Foo Fighters website for notes and photos from nite 1and nite 2.
Lucky for us that we figured out beforehand that since the venue is on the Berkeley High Campus, there's no drinkin' allowed in the BCT at all. Given that we were lookin' at a 2 hour plus show, we made a quick pit stop close by at Jupiter for a few microbrews before heading in.
Anyhoo, the Foos played and the Foos kicked some ass. The lineup for the show consisted of either a solo Dave with acoustic guitar strumming out some of the quieter tracks, or a full on 8 piece band, that included more guitars and a violin in addition to the regular Foos. The band pretty much played the 2nd disc of "In Your Honor" in it's entirety, and then picked and chose select tracks from their other albums. The hands down highlight track of the evening was a rendition of "Floaty" from the Foos' eponymous debut album. For this song, Dave handed the mic over to Petra Haden, who is their touring violinist. I wasn't so sure about this move until the band led in and she started singing. As soon as she opened her mouth, my jaw hit the floor and I picked it up about 4 minutes later. What a crazy, amazing voice... the only word I can think of to describe it is angelic. Definitely a good choice for vocalist on that trac. Other songs that really stuck out were "Friend of a Friend" about the dudes in Nirvana, and "Razor", which Dave played all by himself. Give that one a listen sometime and imagine playing guitar and singing at the same time. I'm no musician, but that crap doesn't sound easy to me. At all.
A jammin' acoustic orchestra mixed with laughs? I can dig it. In fact, we dug it so much that PHarrell, El Duque and myself went back for round 2 the next nite. And once again, the Foos brought it.
Here's a pretty good review of both shows from The Willits News: Dave Grohl finds nirvana in acoustic show
Check the Foo Fighters website for notes and photos from nite 1and nite 2.
