Lina Lecaro[UPDATE 2/11/2011: It goes like this: Tomorrow (Saturday)'s night Secret Foo Fighters show was going to be at the Echo (or the Echoplex) and the opening act was going to be the Keith Morris/Raymond Pettibon LA punk supergroup OFF!, but it apparently has been cancelled due to the fact that, well, it's 2011 and YOU CANNOT PUT ON A SECRET SHOW WITHOUT EVERYONE FINDING OUT! Now, we had INITIALLY heard this show was going to be at The Troubadour, but we had it on excellent authority that OFF!'s people had been mentioning the Echo/Echoplex gig as a done deal all last week. Feel free to add to Dave Grohl's sinister campaign of misinformation in the comments.]
[For continuing coverage of the Foo Fighters' secret shows of February 2011, see “Foo Fighters' Secret Show Last Night is Also Last Night Ever for Spaceland Club: Here's How It Went Down“, “Foo Fighters at the Roxy Last Night: We Got the Exclusive Pics“, and the slideshows “Nightranger: Sexy Bands and Foo Fighters” by Lina Lecaro, and “Secret Show: Foo Fighters @ The Roxy” by Jena Ardell.]
[UPDATE: We snuck a reporter and photog into the secret Roxy show Monday night. Here's the scoop.]
The Foo Fighters have always had an impish sense of humor and creative way of using media (their videos -from the Mentos-inspired “Big Me” to the flight attendant drag in “Learn to Fly” to this– in particular) so it's no surprise the band seems to be getting a kick out of the Scooby Doo-like mystery tour they've taken fans on via the web lately.
Word of Friday night's Dragonfly gig was posted on the band's Twitter and Facebook pages, where links to its new “radio station” (which apparently plays a lot of Creed, LOL) first gave clues then revealed the secret locale.
Tonight, they're set to play another small club show. Read on for our “secret” scoop (including news on more intimate surprise gigs and where they're likely to be) and a review of the awesome Dragonfly gig.
Grohl gets wet; Credit: Lina Lecaro
We're hearing that as of now, the Fighters are planning to hit The Roxy, The Satellite (aka Spaceland) and the Echoplex in the next few weeks and leading up to their new disc's April 12 release. Not sure which of these they'll be at tonight, but only one has nothing on its calendar. We also know that one of the above clubs will have major film crews capturing the scene for the band, so look good Foo fans!
There were a few noticeable camera men at the Dragonfly Friday, and they surely got some good stuff, especially soundwise. The 'Fly -on a high lately, what with the sold out farewell to Miss Kitty's Parlour a few weeks ago, the FF show and Moby's hardcore thrashfest the next night- has been sounding great lately, and the Foos set, though loud, was potent and clear whether they were playing a harmonized pop ballad or brutal, riff-packed metal mosher.
Dragonfly setlist; Credit: Lina Lecaro
The new release seems to be a perfect combination of both styles. Friday, they played the entire thing from start to finish, and if we're to believe the buzz in the room, this is the order the tunes will appear on the record.
Highlights of new stuff included, the blistering opener “Burning Bridges,” the ironic rouser “White Limo” (a picture of which was featured on the show's wristbands and souvenier t-shirts… the album title perhaps?), “Dear Rosemary” (with Bob Mould) [see YouTube clip below] and “These Days” (remember this one; it's got a good build and infectious chorus that recalls the band's mega-hits). The FF formula is definitely employed on a few new tracks, but there are a couple of extremely heavy surprises too.
They followed up the new material with a best of set that was faithful to the recorded versions fans love, yet still felt feral and loose. Though the Foos have a quirky jam band-like vibe on stage, they are also a well-oiled machine at this point. Grohl's vocals are always reliably robust, bassist Nate Mendel provides consistent lines, Pat Smear walloping rhythms and drummer Taylor Hawkins bombastic beats. Keyboardist Rami Jaffe adds a nice dimension on certain tracks as he has on previous hits.
Grohl talked about his recent embrace of social media and alluded Friday that the band will be using both Twitter and Facebook to promote the new record moving forward. They're apparently even cool with YouTube clips of the shows (they linked to a fan video on their Facebook Saturday morning) so they'll surely enjoy with this one below from moi. We do.
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