Wednesday 24/08/05 Foo Fighters, DFA 1979 @ Astoria, London

Put a stadium band like the Foo Fighters in an intimate venue like the Astoria and things are going to get hairy on the barrier.  Girls are fainting before Death from Above 1979 finish warming up.  With just bass, drums and screaming it’s hard to tell how they’re making the noise that they’re managing to make.  “This is an R rated song,” Sebastien Grainger warns us as they strike their way into ‘Pull Out’.  That’s alright.  This is England. No one has a clue what R rated is.  No one has a clue what the band are trying to achieve either.  Is it electroclash?  Is it industrial?  Whatever, it’s not very accessible, so the crowd stop asking questions and turn their attention to the bar. 

There’s no room to breathe when the Foo Fighters emerge, relaxed and happy, greeting those lucky enough to be there.  Officially, it’s a warm up gig for the Reading Festival. Unofficially, it’s playtime for the band and the fans.  An impromptu cover of Oasis’s ‘Lyla’ shows they’re up for anything, and that’s the wonder of Foo. They shoot from the hip - there’s no telling what will be on the setlist or what Dave Grohl is going to say between songs.  Forever the nice guy, tonight he issues explicit instructions to give everyone who didn’t manage to get tickets a big, wet tongue kiss from their friend Dave.  He smooches the microphone stand, then sings the love song ‘Up In Arms’. 

Grohl dedicates the powerful, heartfelt title track of the Foo Fighters’ latest offering, ‘In Your Honour’, to his friend Phil.   Other songs from the album such as ‘The Last Song’, ‘Hell’, ‘DOA’ and ‘Best of You’ are just as vicious and charged. They’re built for performance, it’s a travesty these monsters were ever caged in a studio.  Obvious crowd-pleasers such as ‘Learn to Fly’ and ‘Monkeywrench’ are kept to a minimum, instead there’s an 8 minute version of ‘Stacked Actors‘ and a breakneck rendition of the oft forgotten ‘Have It All’.  They’re not taking the easy way out by any means. 

The first encore, ‘Aurora’, sends a shiver through the room.  It’s a much loved track they rarely play live, the kind that the diehards would die for. Then, barely pausing, drummer, Taylor Hawkins swaps positions with Grohl for ‘Cold Day In The Sun’.  Seeing Grohl on drums is always a treat, he turns into a grinning maniac the moment he sits down, beating the crap out of his kit and looking as if he’s thoroughly enjoying every second.  Taylor has a great voice, a little on the soft side, but he holds his own regardless and the crowd lap up every second.   A final romp through ‘All My Life’, and the night is over.   Consider yourselves duly snogged, courtesy of Grohl and Gigwise.  It was a good one.