The Three Rs: 10: 01 - What the FOO are you talking about?

10: 01 - What the FOO are you talking about?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Written by: Dee4leeds

On Monday 12th November I went to see the all-mighty Foo Fighters LIVE at Sheffield Hallam Arena. So now I'm doing a Foo Fighters related post.

The Album

"Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace" is the name of there new album and it's been out for a while now. (So if I was to Digg this post with just an album review I doubt it would effect the visitor counter at all.) On the album songs like "Long Road to Ruin," "Stranger Things have Happened," and "Erase/Replace" prove the Foo Fighters are back and are showing no chance of stopping. Personally, I love "Erase/Replace" so much that is probably my favourite song of 2007. The album keeps the tempo up with songs like "The Pretender" but the problem with this song is that it lulls you in instead of huge opening which I didn't like, although the song has become hugely popular so maybe people like it with a slow opening. Other songs on the album such as "Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)" and "Home" fill the needs for "Catchy-Chorus Rock" and "Slow, Soft, Acoustic Rock" respectively. However songs such as "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" are not good and have you reaching for the skip button. The "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" is an instrumental piece, the first instrumental piece ever recorded by the Foo Fighters and to be honest let's hope it's there last. There are songs on the album which makes you think "If only they had recorded this sightly different" and a prime example of this is "Let it Die." Although "Let it Die" does get faster and heavier towards the end, it just doesn't go heavy enough.

All in all "Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace" is a top notch album from a top notch band. The album only having a few hiccups during it's duration.

Album Rating: 3/5 - Had those few songs which stopped it's potential.

The Note I'd like to Add

I would like to give a massive kudos to the Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins for recording the drums for Coheed and Cambria's new album, "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow," which has been reviewed by Prodigy.

The Warm-up Act

To the live section of this post. At Sheffield Arena the warm up act for the Foo Fighters was every one's favourite Turkish, ex-band member of System of a Down and scary looking man... Serj Tankian. He began his act with a extremely poor rendition of "The Unthinking Majority" which was a shame because it really did set the tone for the rest of his act. After some unproductive work with the audience he performed the only song people actually knew, "Empty Walls." This was the best performance from Serj, but that's not saying much. Basically the act continued with uninspired but politically charged taunts to the audience and poor renditions of clearly poor songs. The only cheer, poor-old Serj gained was using the line, "Are you ready for the Foo Fighters?" just to then sing more songs. In conclusion if I was too pay to see him live, I would want my money back. My tip for Serj is too get back with System of A Down and begin recording good songs again.

Performance Rating: 2/5 - Very Uninspiring

The Foo Fighters... LIVE

Okay, it starts off a dark stage and then a beam of light, and you can see Dave Grohl and his guitar. They begin with "Let it Die," which if you can remember above, I claimed it should of been heavier, well that's exactly what happened. The slow part was only a verse long and was an all out metal-fest. (Which for the record cannot be killed.) The first song, as with Serj, set the tone for the rest of the night. Without a break they went into "The Pretender" which, again, was much heavier and sounded much better. Which does beg the question, "Why didn't they record the album heavier?" The night of all out rock continued with renditions of songs like "Times Like These," "Breakout" and "Long Road to Ruin" until every one's face had been melted. At which point the Band took it upon themselves to slow it down and play some "acoustic shit." A stage dropped from the ceiling to the middle of the arena. In which acoustic versions of "Everlong" and "My Hero" were played. Although during the version of "Everlong" the rock-key change was complimented with the rest of the band exploding into the song with their instruments. The arena erupted into air-guitars and Mosh-pits during the ear-popping rendition of "All My Life." I could of died happily there...

...the encore involved the Foo Fighters inviting Serj to the stage to sing a version of the Dead Kennedy's songs "Holiday in Cambodia." To finish an truly orgasmic night the band played "Best of You" which was of loudest sung songs from the 18,000 people there.

Performance Rating: 5/5 - Best night of everybody's life? I'm sure the other 17,999 people would agree.