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Jul 21, 2008Dave Grohl Should Love His Job
 Twisted Wife and I can never do one thing. When we plan a night of events, we aren't fucking around. We schedule as many things as humanly possible. If we have five minutes, we better be bungee jumping while doing our taxes. Granted, this is more Twisted Wife than me. She is the queen of over-booking. However, this past weekend was an exception. Not only did Saturday night include a wedding and reception, but also the Foo Fighters at the local arena. That's right. When Twisted Jim takes Twisted Wife on a date, I start with the romance and cap it with the rock!This review marks only the second time I've skipped the opening acts when I've paid over $20 for a show. But it was worth it this time. Instead, the early portion of my evening was spent at my co-worker's wedding. Since I don't talk about work on TJ.com... much, I will try not to out the culprits of the following two moments of wedding awesomeness: 1. In the church a co-worker and I were discussing the Nintendo Wii when a senior co-worker said, "Yeah, people don't want to put the strap on..." of course, we had a nice chuckle along with "(senior co-worker) said 'strap-on.'" Which was closely followed by, "That must be the Wii Adult," and so on. To which my response was, "We can't even go to a church, can we?" 2. I changed out of my suit in the public parking garage. This would have been a better moment had one of my senior co-workers been leaving while I was exposed. Sorry, maybe next time. Foo Fighters: Kemper Arena 7/19/08 If it weren't for the open bar at D Mac's wedding, TW and I would have seen a little bit of opening bands. I was actually interested to see Supergrass, who I hadn't seen for years and thought had broken up. If you haven't heard their song Late in the Day, your musical life has been unfulfilled. Instead, we walked into the second half of the Foo Fighter's The Pretender. The sheer volume as we entered the arena reminded me that I was at a ROCK show. I've been to a lot of "rock" shows this year, but Saturday was about blood, sweat, spit (which Dave Grohl does a lot) and loud-ass arena ROCK! As we found our seats (yes, seats... I'm old, you know), I noticed the stage had a long runway that ended in a smaller, circular stage. In other words, it was a giant phallus. I let it go, thinking "Oh, they'll run up and down the runway and play a few songs from the little stage, etc." I settled back in and enjoyed the heavier of the Foo repertoire as played from the far end of the arena, like any proper ROCK show. Of course, Dave stopped the show now and again to exercise his wit and rest his neck (he can headbang with the best of 'em). He reminded the folks in the upper deck to switch from dial-up to the "real deal" when purchasing tickets, and let the crowd know that the band would play as long as the crowd would stick around. And, honestly, he wasn't lying... much. Fourteen years of experience have made this band into one of the best and most charismatic bands I've ever seen. The show can be summed up in one analogy. It was masturbatory. The band started at the large end of the stage, building up steam, playing the heavier songs and stopping every now and then to catch their breath. Dave ran up and down the runway almost making it to the round stage but stopping just short. And then, during Stacked Actors, the Foos blew their load and all jumped onto the small stage for an almost-acoustic set. Like any good jerk, they didn't completely let up. The acoustic set kept the momentum going just enough to allow a second round of heavy banging at the large end of the stage, ending with Best of You. And we all drove away, sweaty and satisfied. 
posted by Jim at 11:44 PM
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