The most incredible show Dave Grohl ever saw: “People went bananas”
Dave Grohl has only ever really known stardom in his musical career.
Despite the heady years of Nirvana’s come-up in the Seattle grunge scene, it was all lights, camera, action for Grohl. Bouncing between arena-sized audiences and music video shoots, he was immediately thrust into life as a rock and roll star.
Then, even when he tried to buck the trend and pursue his own humble endeavour with Foo Fighters, he soon found the limelight and had to write songs fitting of a band the world wanted to make the biggest.
As great as all of that instant success sounds, Grohl would be able to tell you that there is a knack to writing a stadium rock anthem. Stardom doesn’t grant bands the right to turn out mediocrity and expect fans to sing back; they have to write songs and, more importantly, choruses that warrant the worship.
Really, there are only a few modern bands who share that status with Grohl. As Foo Fighters brought rock into the millennium, they stood alongside Oasis and U2, who were writing the new blueprint for stadium rock. And while Grohl’s love of the Mancunian brothers has never gone unnoticed, it was Bono and co who really showed him how to capture a big crowd.
“I went to see U2 on that Elevation tour,” he remembered, in awe, “There was this moment where all the house lights were on, and they walked out on stage before the house lights went on. And the audience was like waiting for something to happen, and then they just kind of walked out on stage, and I was like, ‘Wow!’ and it was because they’re so godlike or whatever.”
Really, walking out to a brightly lit stage is taboo in terms of drama. There’s no anticipation to see the faces that make up this beloved band, who would otherwise slink around the shadows of the dimly lit stage. They instead walked out, with nothing to hide and in turn flipping the entire live show process on its head. In that swift moment, Grohl realised that when you’re that big, there are no rules, nor is there time to rest on your laurels. It’s always about innovating.
He continued, “They started playing, and it just made the room shrink down into this little, like, it was like a club. It was just so awesome. And then the lights went out, and people went bananas. And those six minutes were some of the most powerful…I don’t know, in the place there were 20,000 people, and it felt like it was a tiny club. It was pretty awesome.”
Come the start of this millennium, when that Elevation tour took place, there wasn’t a band better suited to big rooms. But the brave walk out proved that they hadn’t taken anything for granted and were desperately looking for ways to freshen up some of the key elements of their show. Admittedly, their desire to innovate has put them in dangerous territory before, but there is no doubting their influence.
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