Always Nice to Have Something to Look Forward to

Dream Theater is playing in DC in July.

The Perils of Arena Rock

By a stroke of good luck, I got free tickets to see the Foo Fighters here in Washington last night. By a stroke of bad luck, the sound in my section of the Verizon Center was terrible. It was muffled and faint (for a rock show). One indicator: Dave Grohl’s banter with the crowd was unintelligible. It was weird – he’d say something, and the room would erupt. But the crowd around me didn’t really react because we had no idea what he was saying.

So, I can’t really judge the show, musically. “Why does this band need three guitars?” I wrote at one point. Maybe I wouldn’t have wondered if I had been down in front or whatever.

Still, a few observations.

• The place was packed. To the rafters. I don’t know if it was sold out, but it looked that way.

• Dave Grohl is a serious showman. Running around, jumping into the crowd, flailing his head around, bantering. I didn’t stay for the whole show (unfortunate, because Bob Mould sat in with them during the encore), but Grohl was in it 111 percent while I was there.

• Taylor Hawkins is the real deal. Impressive chops. I think he got the loudest cheer of the night when Grohl was introducing the band.

Now, the sound wasn’t bad everywhere at this show. I stopped by another section, and the difference was stark. Finally, I could understand some of Grohl’s banter. I liked this line: “We used to fucking suck, and now we shred ass every night.”