 Foo Fighters, Weezer rock the house
Gazing into a sea of raised lighters during a slow moment in Thursday night's Foo Fighters show, frontman Dave Grohl remarked: "This is an arena-rock moment right here."
Actually, it was one of several. There was Grohl's midset journey through the crowd to a platform behind the sound booth for a guitar solo during an extended "Stacked Actors."
Then there was the over-the-top use of lasers in the recent hit "The Best of You."
And there was Grohl's superhuman rock-star scream, heard too many times to count, begging the question of how the heck his voice can hold up on tour.
But he sounded great in the Van Andel Arena show, leading Foo Fighters (including guitarist Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel and drummer Taylor Hawkins) through a dynamic 16-song set, raising the collective energy of the crowd of nearly 7,500 to a fever pitch.
Grohl was in usual fine form, whether tearing through the group's long list of hits (including "My Hero," "All My Life," "Learn to Fly," "This is a Call," "Everlong" and show-closing "Monkeywrench") or entertaining between songs.
For example, he told of how the bands and crew members spent a day off in Grand Rapids, gathering Wednesday night at Wenger's Bowl, 629 Leonard St. NW. Grohl called it "one of the coolest (expletive) bowling alleys I've ever seen in my life." He paused to belch dramatically. Then, in language too colorful to print, he explained the digestive consequences of mixing Jagermeister with Wenger's mini-tacos.
Absent was early hit "Big Me," but co-headliner Weezer performed its version of the ballad, which proved to be one of the highlights in that band's hit-and-miss, 18-song set.
Many longtime Weezer fans agree the band's newest album, "Make Believe," is junk, and hearing the new songs alongside such classics as "Buddy Holly," "El Scorcho" and "My Name is Jonas" was painful.
I love Weezer as much as anyone whose adolescence was made easier by the band's first two albums. But it's likely the group will be remembered just for those records -- the self-titled "blue" album and "Pinkerton" -- which are important for different reasons. The former is a perfect time capsule for the mid-'90s Alternative Nation, the latter a collection of bitter power-pop that forecast nearly a decade's worth of emo.
All in all, that's a darned good legacy, but it's one that doesn't seem comfortable to Rivers Cuomo and company. Though they played most "blue" album standards -- including "Surf Wax America" and "Say It Ain't So," now a torch song for open-mic musicians far and wide -- only one "Pinkerton" song ("El Scorcho") made it onto the set list.
Regardless, the band (Cuomo, guitarist Brian Bell, bassist Scott Shriner, drummer Patrick Wilson) proved it still can bring the rock when necessary and interacted jovially with the crowd.
Cuomo started the encore with a solo, acoustic version of "Island in the Sun," performed behind the sound booth in the middle of the arena floor, and the band later invited a fan onstage to play guitar during "Undone (The Sweater Song)."
UK quintet Kaiser Chiefs kicked off the night with an entertaining seven-song set of Ramones-influenced dance rock. Known for its hit "I Predict a Riot," the group plays the sort of music capably performed by perhaps a dozen similar bands.
A word of advice: Pick up the new Franz Ferdinand album and call it a day. But leave some room in your iPod for the Kaiser Chiefs. |
