I know I'm sounding old when I start to kvetch about the noise level at a concert, but Saturday night's "Foo Fighter's" show at the Oakland Arena was deafening. Seriously; it was so loud it'd make Pete Townshend wince. Having not thought of ear plugs in advance, I had to resort to stuffing tissue in my ears to help avoid the 4-hour post-show ringing that would have otherwise occurred.
The show had two opening acts; the first, "Hello Stranger", was already on stage when I arrived. They were fronted by a thin attractive woman wearing low cut white spandex and leopard-fur boots. Think "Quarterflash" meets "The Donnas". They closed with a cover of "AC/DC"'s "Thurderstruck". They were actually a decent band, and the choice in selections for the end of their set was a wise one. They were followed by "Against Me!", another thrashing rock band, equally loud, but strong players and performers with what sounded like good garage-band music. Their stage banner looked like something from a football game, but that aside, they were a strong band as well.
Foo took the stage and launched into a thrashing version of "Let It Die" followed by about 6 or 7 more thrashing, pounding versions of some of their best songs. The sound was so loud and so thrashing, however, that in comparison to the original recordings, they were heavily muddled, at least in my opinion. I hate to say it but had I not known the songs, I might not have liked them based on the live versions, and I was wondering what some of the suite guests thought of the band, knowing some were not too tapped into Foo. Now, because I was in a suite, perhaps the acoustics therein was the issue, but it's not been an issue on prior events I've seen from the same suite, so I think it was just the band and sound settings.
About half way through the show the band moved to a center stage where they did an incredible accoustic set. And my friends with ticketed seats were well positioned for this part of the show, making the 'luxury' of being in a suite overshadowed by being front and center for this segment. It was a great set and I regret not having caught their full acoustic tour back in 2006.
The San Jose Mercury News had a good write upof the show online today. One point they made, which want to echo here, was the stage presence of the band and Grohl. He really played his heart out and played with a rock-legend intensity. On top of that he had a casual charisma in his interactions with the crowd, which gave him a sense of 'everyman' accessibility.
But what else would one expect from the guy that let himself get 'punched' on SNL?
