Foo Fighters: With Royal Blood and the Dropkick Murphys

Sun. July 19, 2015 – Fenway Park, Boston MA

Royal Blood

A relatively new band, Royal Blood has only one, self-titled album that was released in August of 2014. Although they may be young—bassist/singer Mike Kerr is 25 and drummer Ben Thatcher is 26—they sure know how to put on a kick-ass show. The heavy distortion on the bass guitar and massive drum fills round out their two-man group to sound like there are five guys up on stage with them. Overall, their songs could use more variety, in terms of the composition, but Mike and Ben’s energy and interaction with the crowd managed to intrigue at least some of the slowly gathering crowd.

The Dropkick Murphys

The Dropkick Murphy’s are a hometown favorite, having been closely associated with the Boston Red Sox, whose stadium was being used for the concert. They came out strong with “The Boys Are Back,” but it was the end of their set that brought in the heavy hitters like “Rose Tattoo,” “I’m Shipping Up To Boston,” and “Dirty Water.” The latter two songs brought the entire crowd to their feet, Boston pride reigning strong in that moment. Their songs still held a sweet spot in everyone’s hearts, but the performance and overall vibe of their set screamed dad-rock.

The Main Event - The Foo Fighters

But enough about the openers. Everyone was amped up for the main event, the Foo Fighters. The stage was covered by a long, hanging sheet with the Foo Fighters’ emblem plastered on it as the crew set up their gear. From behind the curtain, the Foos started playing the quiet, yet recognizable intro to “Everlong,” one of their most popular songs. The curtain dropped as Dave Grohl let off a howling scream and the chorus picked up. What a way to start a show.

From the beginning, the sound easily filled the entire stadium, but was unfortunately dampened by the extreme humidity that day, sometimes making Dave hard to understand (whether he was speaking or singing). The rain that came later in the evening surprisingly didn’t hinder the performance; in fact, Dave proclaimed, “So what if Mother Nature pisses on our f*cking parade? Right about now, that sh*t feels good!” “Monkey Wrench” was up next and Dave used an extended guitar fill to welcome everyone to the show, exclaiming, “Night two is always the f*cking louder audience every place we’ve been.” Following this interlude, Taylor Hawkins displayed pure power with an energetic drum solo that closed the song.

The Foos played “Learn To Fly” next, followed by “Something From Nothing,” the first track off their newest album, “Sonic Highways.” As it seemed with most of the new songs they performed, the audience mellowed out during those tracks. The Foos’ next song quickly reversed that effect: “The Pretender,” off the album Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace (2007), started off slowly as Dave articulated the melody of the song in a guitar solo before the chorus came in with a bang. The giant screens around the stage flashed footage from the song’s music video, adding to the excitement of this live performance.

Again, Dave used another long guitar fill to talk, telling the crowd that people always ask him, “What happened to rock n roll?” And in reply, Dave demanded that the lights shine on the audience, and then exclaimed, “That’s what happened to rock n roll!”

Side Note: If you didn’t know by now, Dave broke his leg falling off a stage during a performance in Sweden. He now sits on a giant, rock n roll throne to play for the fans, allowing the Foos to keep touring.

During this break in “The Pretender,” Dave gave his fans the ultimate sign of hope: he slowly stood up on his throne and proceeded to play a screeching guitar solo dedicated to all of them, before he collapsed back down to his seat.

After “The Pretender,” Dave gave a not-so-brief narrative of how he broke his leg, designed the throne (while he was high on morphine), and continued to tour, with pictures and videos included. He followed this with “Up In Arms” from arguably the Foo Fighters’ best album, The Colour and the Shape (1997). He dedicated this “love song” to his road crew as thanks for building his throne in a mere five days. Regrettably, the band didn’t reach back farther in their discography to pull out “Big Me” as the love song of the evening.

Up next was “Congregation,” followed by “Walk,” two crowd-pleasing tunes. What came next proved to be the highlight of the night. Dave began the band introductions; first, Chris Shiflett—who covered “Let’s Go” by The Cars—then Nate Mendel—who covered “I’m The One” by Van Halen. Dave then brought onto the stage his orthopedic surgeon. The band started playing “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes and the doctor stepped up to the mic. As he started singing, the crowd became enthralled by his weird persona and scary similarity to the original singer of the song, Jack White. He pulled off the performance so well that when he left the stage Dave said, “Alright…goodnight everyone!”

To finish up the band introductions, Taylor Hawkins sang and drummed the song “Cold Day In The Sun” from the In Your Honor b-side. This more mellow song made for the perfect transition to a brief acoustic set, including “My Hero” and “Time Like These.” During “My Hero,” there was a point when Dave led the audience in acapella chants of the chorus and eventually dropped out so only the crowd was singing; the feeling of community in that moment was unparalleled.

The Foo Fighters covered two more songs that night, “Under Pressure” by Queen and “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper. Taylor sang most of “Under Pressure” since Dave openly admitted that he didn’t know all of the words. For “School’s Out,” lead singer of Boston-based Godsmack, Sully Erna, joined the Foos on stage. The covers were a great way to re-engage any audience members that may have gotten tired out during the first half of the show.

At this point in the show, Dave gave the audience the option of having another classic rock cover or moving on to a Foo Fighters song. An almost unanimous response resulted in the immediate performance of “All My Life” off the album One By One (2002). The angry delivery fired up the crowd, once again.

After that powerhouse of a song, the Foos slowed it back down again with “These Days” off Wasting Light (2013), and “Outside” from Sonic Highways, their latest album based on an 8-episode mini-series documentary on HBO—the Foo Fighters recorded each song on the album in a different city at a famous recording studio; Dave wrote songs that captured the musical history and vibes of that particular place, based mainly on interviews conducted during filming.

“Outside” proved to be a more low-key performance, as well. The guitar solo, however, enraptured many of the audience members present. On the record, the solo is played by Joe Walsh, former guitarist of the Eagles; at this live performance, Dave took on the solo, proving his worth as a guitarist, and then some. At one point during this incredible solo, Dave used the cast on his leg to play his guitar, creating a distorted screeching sound that fit in with the feel of the song, and spurred a frenzy of awe in the audience.

To follow up that massive performance piece, the Foos whipped out “Breakout” from their third album There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999), dedicating it to all of the old-timer fans in the crowd. Up next was “Arlandria” off Wasting Light, a personal favorite of mine that, unfortunately, did not evoke a strong reaction in the audience. Drawing from their earliest, self-titled album, the Foos performed “This Is A Call,” the very first track on the record and one of the more notable songs on the album. All in all, the Foo Fighters exhibited a variety of songs from their extensive discography, pleasing both new and old fans present at Fenway that night. And despite the heat and humidity, the band and the crowd didn’t seem to lose their momentum by the end of the concert.

The Foo Fighters closed the show with “Best Of You,” from In Your Honor; it was an extended, but extremely connected version of the song. Dave brought the audience together to sing the “Ooh’s” from the pre-chorus and you could feel the communal spirit of the moment, it was almost tangible.

If you’d never been to a Foo Fighters show before—like myself—their second show at Fenway Park was an experience like no other and a performance etched permanently into the collective’s memory. If you’d seen them before, the Foos proved, once again, that rock n roll is far from dead; it lives in all of us.