“AUSTIN ARE YOU FUCKING REEEAAAAADY?!?!?!?!” Dave Grohl is a screaming madman on a rock n’ roll throne – both figuratively and literally. There is Red Bull surging in his veins, pumping from the heart of a rock n’ roll maniac, willfully embracing his cock-rocking human caricature with the kind of gusto generally seen only in pro wrestling. Broken leg? Fuck it, let’s get high and design a crazy-ass throne framed with guitars and spotlights!
The Day One kickoff of Austin City Limits 2015 was magnificent, with strong showings from Royal Blood, Albert Hammond Jr., Run The Jewels, Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas and Gary Clark Jr. – even Tame Impala singer Kevin Parker left his goddamned scarf at home for once and put that rare-bare-neck nervousness to use for a great performance.
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But the Foo Fighters. Jesus Christ. Before the giant Foos banner had been lifted on the stage for the muscle-car roaring run of the headliners’ two-hour set on Friday night, Grohl was screaming his goddamned head off. Through a blasting run of massive opening hits including “Everlong,” “Monkeywrench” and “Learn to Fly” he was a roaring mix of a Super Bowl coach on crack, motivational speaker on crack, and yes, a pro wrestler on crack, throwing in a “Let’s go!!” or a “Here we go!” in every verse, or “One more time!” in the pre-chorus.
Naysayers of the Sonic Highways experiment were silenced by the powerful impact of “Something From Nothing” from last year’s release, which measured up just as strongly as follower ”The Pretender”. An acoustic delivery of “Big Me” from the first record went over well (for those who could hear it – those in the back were straining), and prefaced Grohl’s extended introduction of guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and keyboardist Rami Jaffe. Extended hijinks followed, including a couple minutes of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” – which was outdone when Hawkins took a vocal lead on an earnestly cheeky run through Pink Floyd’s “In The Flesh”.
The band has brought out Gary Clark Jr. at nearly every tour stop for the past week or so, so it was hardly a shock when the 31-year-old Austinite appeared to play a sizzling blues solo on “What Did I Do? / God As My Witness”. But after utterly crushing his own set earlier in the day (smiling more than I’d ever seen him in the process), it was an exhilarating return for fans.
Before singalong closing anthem “Best of You,” Grohl promised to return (obviously referring beyond next Friday, for ACL’s encore weekend): “The last time we played this fest was maybe eight years ago,” he said. “We’re gonna go home, take 10 years off, I’ll look like the Unabomber, then we’ll do it all again.”
Yeah right. See you very soon, Dave.
Foo Fighters ACL 2015 setlist:
Everlong
Monkey Wrench
Learn To Fly
Something From Nothing
The Pretender
Big Me
Congregation
Walk
Band intros (snippets of Eruption, Roundabout, MTV Theme Song and Tom Sawyer)
My Hero
All My Life
Times Like These
Skin and Bones
These Days
What Did I Do? / God As My Witness (with Gary Clark Jr.)
This is a Call
In the Flesh (Pink Floyd cover)
Best of You
All photos: Johnny Firecloud
