Foo Fighters

at Scotiabank Place

As the day approached for me to see the FOO FIGHTERS at Scotiabank Place on Wednesday March 19 2008, a few thoughts ran through my head. Would Dave Grohl sit behind the drum kit and bang out a tune of two. Would they help to melt the snow off the roof of Scotiabank Place as they are known for having High Energy shows?

The day arrived and I was energized to see what all the hoopla was about. So we were about to enter the show and The First band HI-FI Hand Grenades from Detroit, Michigan were finishing their set. They sounded like a combination of a rock/punk intertwined.

The next Band to appear on stage was AGAINST ME from Gainesville, Florida. They are currently being played on the radio and have a hit called "Thrash Unreal" from their album New Wave. Another favorite from the Floridians is White People for Peace who with their punk driven sound pulled off an exciting set that had the lead singer encompassing some terrific vocals and sound to match. They were loud and the sound was made better for the audience later into their set.

So when the crew started clearing Against Me's equipment from the stage the floor we were situated for the evening's main event was filling up. I'd say there was between 9-10,000 people at the Bank that night.

We were three people away from the catwalk and it turns out that we were situated about 10 feet from what became the mosh pit in the latter part of the concert.

The FOO FIGHTERS didn't disappoint and answered my second thought of melting the snow off the roof!!! Dave and the other Grammy Award winning members started the show with "Let It Die" and then in to "The Pretender" from their latest release Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace. He also talked to the audience about playing for say 30-50 minutes in typical rock star fashion. They ended up playing for over two hours, a feat not a lot of bands attempt at Scotiabank Place.

Grohl's vocal range is quite amazing as he can sing softly, and then stab you with his high pitched screams. Following the Pretender they did "Times Like These," a hard rocking version of Breakout, and Breathe. Dave Grohl would rather run not walk down the catwalk and get the audience involved and tell us to SCREAM!!!

A highlight when they brought a drum kit form the ceiling and an eight piece accompaniment toned it down to sing acoustically. He talked about a meeting in the back with Bob Dylan and thought Bob was dressed all in black was going to F'ckin kill him but it turns that he was so impressed that he wanted to compliment them and add "Everlong" to his set list. They played "Skin and Bones," "Hero" and Cold Day in the Sun" in the round. Besides Taylor Hawkins's earlier mind blowing drum solo on the song "Stacked Actors" with some John Bonhamisque tributes in Hawkins's drumming, it definitely had the crowd in awe. But when Dave said that just when a concert couldn't get better, the triangle solo that Drew Hester pulled off is one of amazement!!

The encores were "Monkey Wrench," "All My Life" and "Best of You" after Dave backstage kept telling us that they would originally play one encore then he said two and then finally on his fingers he said three and that's why they did. So thank you FOO FIGHTERS for playing in Ottawa and hope to see you again, maybe at BLUES FEST???

Article by:
FS Staff

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