For those unaware of the concept behind this, basically a few months ago, the Foos set up a competition for fans across the U.S, asking them to send in photos of their garages and write down in twenty five words or less why the band should play there. The ones they liked best would be the ones they would play a live set in, as they toured the country with the sole purpose of performing in fan's garages. No wonder Dave Grohl has been referred to on countless occasions as "The Nicest Man in Rock".
Their garage performances are simply awesome to watch. The cramped space of the garages is much more effective in delivering their sound directly to the small audiences that are huddled around the band, and is particularly successful for the delivery of songs from their latest album "Wasting Light", which can be heard as they perform tracks like "White Limo", "Arlandia" and "Bridge Burning". Touring songs from "Wasting Light" this way is wonderful homage as well, since, as Dave explains "We made the record in a garage, right?". Of course bigger hits from the band can be heard in the documentary as well, such as "Learn to Fly", "All My Life" and "My Hero", which puts the crowd in an absolute frenzy at which point you fear the house may collapse. Musically, the Garage Tour displays a much more enjoyable live Foo Fighters experience than, say, 2006's "Skin and Bones" album, which I've never been very fond of since I've never really enjoyed hearing acoustic versions of hard rock songs, so a whole live album of it was... not fun. However, the Garage Tour shows the Foo Fighters going crazy and giving the crowd a good old Rock N' Roll thrashing.
Performing aside, the documentary also shows the band to be kind and caring bunch towards their fans and upholds Dave Grohl's quirky sense of humour, seen at several points such as when playing at a New York home, as Dave takes kindly to the garage owner's speech about them "If there's a better rock band in the world... Fuck, there isn't!", stating "I think he should introduce us every night." Further along, another moment of kindness can be seen when the band allow the owner of third house in which they play to play guitar with them on several tracks. It is revealed at the end of the show that the owner is probably the biggest Foo Fighters fan ever, as Dave explains to the crowd "If I had a fuckin' nickel(?) for every time this guy right here came up to me after a show and said 'Hey, can you sign this incredibly obscure fuckin' bootleg I found the other day' or 'Remember me?'", before going on to explain that he must have met him at least 29 times after shows and then forming a real friendship with him onstage. Another amazing act of kindness can be seen from bassist, Pat Smear as a group of children who watches the band in Denver ask if they could get his guitar, and he is simply seen to crouch down, put his signature on the back of the guitar and hand it to the kids. It's amazing to watch and shows Pat to be a absolute legend.
These are some the highlights of the documentary. It's a lot of fun and the music is simply wonderful and certainly worth a watch. At the end, Dave delivers a message to the crowd saying that the shows they have done had the spirit of some of the first shows they ever did in smaller venues. I can only hope they choose to do it again in the UK. And if they do I can only hope I get a garage put up at my house, because having the Foo Fighters perform right in front of you surely has to be one of the best experience in the world.
Here it is below. Check it out for sheer awesomeness!
No comments:
Post a Comment