The Washington DC hardcore show Dave Grohl called the his “own personal” Woodstock
We’ve all got our own equivalents of the most important gigs we’ve ever attended, and for plenty of people, seeing Nirvana at Reading Festival or Foo Fighters at Glastonbury will rank highly in the estimations of fans of either band.
Of course, it goes without saying that Dave Grohl was a significant part of these aforementioned occasions, having been the drummer with the former group when they headlined in 1992, and the lead singer and guitarist with the latter when they headlined in 2017. For a lot of people, these are the sort of occasions that will forever live in the memory, and it’s certainly not a bad resume for Grohl himself.
However, it’s often the all-day concerts where you get to see multiple bands play one after another that stick out as being the most significant experiences for fans, given that you can claim to have ticked off multiple bucket list performances in one fell swoop while surrounded by thousands of other fans who are just as excited by the prospect.
Woodstock is a perfect example of this, with some of the biggest names having congregated in the New York neighbourhood for an iconic weekend of live music. Its West Coast counterpart, the Altamont Free Festival, is another example of this, and both still live on as being legendary examples of when dozens of acclaimed acts of the era all descended upon the same space to play to a crowd of thrilled punters.
However, both of these festivals took place in 1969, far too long ago for many people now living to be able to have gone and definitely beyond the memories of some of the people who would have been fortunate enough to have gone.
Grohl was only a matter of months old at the time of these two major music events, barely even conscious of the world around him, and certainly many years away from having any ideas of forming musical projects of his own. However, despite being unable to attend these two iconic events, there’s one event that he recalls making a significant impact on him as a teenager, which was a completely different prospect to both of these aforementioned concerts.
In July 1983, Grohl travelled over to Washington, DC, from his home in Virginia, only 14 years old at the time, and on the eve of the Independence Day celebrations in the capital, went to attend an event designed as a protest against the incumbent US government. At the Lincoln Memorial, the free Rock Against Reagan concert took place with a handful of iconic hardcore punk bands such as Dead Kennedys, Millions of Dead Cops and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Grohl was overwhelmed by what he witnessed.
Despite a strong police presence, the emergence of the Dead Kennedys onto the stage to a crowd of 800 people sent everyone into a frenzy, and after launching into a rendition of ‘Holiday in Cambodia’, Grohl still vividly remembers the scene that unfolded around him. “I’ve got chills just thinking about it,” he later reflected. “It was like our own personal Altamont, our Woodstock. And that’s when I said, ‘Fuck the world, I’m doing this.’”
Evidently, unlike anything else he’d ever had the chance to see, and while it isn’t exactly as revered as the likes of Woodstock, it’s clear that something like this would make a significant impression on a young hardcore punk fan, and ultimately kick-started what he would end up pursuing for the rest of his life.
