Foo Fighters in concert to kick what promises to be an insane week off. Recorded at Arenan in Stockholm on November 11, 1999 by Swedish Radio.
Dave Grohl created the Foo Fighters to release solo material after Nirvana broke up in 1994, and recorded their eponymous debut album (1995) mostly alone in six days. After the songs drew label interest, he recruited Mendel and Goldsmith, both formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, and Smear, who had played with Nirvana on tour. The band made their first public performance in February 1995, five months before the album’s release.
Goldsmith quit during the recording of their second album, The Colour and the Shape (1997), with Grohl re-recording most of the drum parts, and Smear departed soon afterward; they were replaced by Hawkins and Stahl, respectively. Stahl was fired before the recording of the group’s third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999), and the band briefly continued as a trio until Shiflett joined after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The group released their fourth album, One by One, in 2002, followed by the two-disc In Your Honor (2005), which was split between acoustic songs and heavier material. The Foo Fighters released their sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007.
The Foo Fighters have been described as alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock, power pop, pop rock, and their early sound as grunge. They were initially compared to Grohl’s previous group, Nirvana. Grohl acknowledged that Kurt Cobain was an influence on his songwriting: “Through Kurt, I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.” The Foo Fighters also used the technique of shifting between quiet verses and loud choruses, which Grohl said was influenced by the members of Nirvana “liking The Knack, Bay City Rollers, Beatles, and ABBA as much as we liked Flipper and Black Flag, I suppose.” When comparing the legacies of the two bands, Pitchfork said the Foo Fighters’ “may not be anywhere near as glamorous or as era-defining as that of Nirvana, but in a way, it’s much more difficult and thankless”. The publication would also call Grohl and the band “excellent at being mainstream” and being “his generation’s answer to Tom Petty—a consistent hit machine pumping out working-class rock.”
Okay – get the week up and rolling – take a few deep breaths and put one foot in front of the other.
We can do this.
