Foo Fighters. At the Santa Barbara Bowl, Saturday, September
2.
Reviewed by Ethan Stewart
The Bowl was consumed in perfection last Saturday night, every
inch of it dripping with warm and welcoming intimacy. Playing their
final show of a summer-long “acoustic” tour, quintessential
soft-core MTV rock band the Foo Fighters set up shop in our beloved
Bowl and absolutely tore the place up. Front man and former Nirvana
drummer David Grohl took hold of the audience’s hand the second he
stepped on stage, cracking jokes at his bandmates’ expense,
covering Nirvana tunes, referencing David Hasselhoff’s drug habits,
and remembering back to his early career visits to S.B.
The evening started with famed Oxnard surfer Timmy Curran
playing what he called a “dream-come-true show.” As the sun sunk
low, Curran offered up a solid set of that standard brand of
surf-styled acoustic guitar rhythms with hopeful lyrics that can
really be best described as “Jack Johnson music.” Not to take
anything away from Curran, but the genre has always seemed to be
better suited to a friend’s backyard barbecue than a primetime
music venue.
The term acoustic in the Foo Fighters’ tour advertising is a
relative concept. While acoustic guitars were used in every song,
there were also bass and rhythm, drums, a keyboard, congas, bells,
and a violin. And of course there was Grohl, whose voice, wicked
head spazzes, and undeniable charisma make you really wonder: What
if Kurt Cobain had never died? Would this guy ever have come out
from behind the drums? Another treat was guitarist and local boy
Chris Shiflett, who is, according to Grohl, a gun-toting,
Republican-voting, baby seal killer. Shiflett had no microphone in
front of him to defend himself against his front man’s ribbing, but
later his nice blues-infused solo did more than defend his good
name. The night rolled through Nirvana gems like “Marigold,” as
well as famous Foo anthems like “My Hero,” “Everlong,” and “Times
Like These.” When the smoke cleared, the clock read exactly one
minute past 10 p.m., with the entire crowd on its feet and
screaming blissfully into a picture-perfect, end-of-summer
night.