I was at Taylor Hawkins last concert - a Foo Fighters review

Did i ever tell you I was at Taylor Hawkin’s last show?  Well, his last US show.  It was about 3 weeks before his overdose.  We went to see the Foos at Innings Festival in Phoenix (Feb 26, 2022).  Well, we went to see a bunch of bands… but the primary draws were Caamp, the Foos, and Billy Strings.  I thought the Foos were just ok, which is weird.  I bet every single other person there thought it was the greatest show of their lives.  And it was very much meant to be.  They played perfect, and all the hits were there.  And you will NEVER say the band phoned it in.  Dave Grohl has  never phoned in anything in his life.  That dude is so present he’s a fucking Buddha.  I thought this just might be interesting to tell you about this show for two reasons:  Why I was disappointed by a perfect and amazing concert I had been waiting decades to see… and 2) what was Taylor Hawkins final US show like?

Well, the stories are actually kinda linked.

The reason I didn’t love the show is it was too bombastic.  The Foo Fighters experience is designed to be a 14 year old’s first concert.  It’s not a bad thing. It’s just not for me.  It was meant to be an epic spectacle, and it was.  It looked like a Kiss concert.   Lights, explosions, crazy camera cuts every 4 seconds.  Again, I get why they did this.  Dave Grohl is a monster showman, and just a wonderful and awesome guy.  Since I have seen several hundred nationally touring rock shows, I have seen it all.  I didn’t want to see show, or a spectacle.  Dave Grohl is a great songwriter.  That is what I wanted to hear… the band.  Just the band.  In every song, about every 45 seconds, Grohl screams something like “Are you having the best time ever?  Are you ready to rock?  Are you ready to sing along with me?”  Etc etc.  They are cliches, but that isn’t why Dave.  Dave Grohl genuinely wants to make sure everyone there is really having the best possible experience.  I haven’t seen a front man genuinely care and work that hard since Poison.  Also, strangely… visually the show was the Taylor Hawkins show.  Taylor had 12 cameras on him, yes I counted.  Taylor had 3x more more jumbotron time than even Grohl.   Smart move.  He is not just incredibly fun to watch… he is the most aesthetically perfect human god has made.  Fuck, he is a beautiful man!  Er… was?    :(

I recall talking to the wife about 1) why so much Taylor? And 2) I wonder what happened to Pat Smear, did he leave the band?  See, I wasn’t on the Pat side (to your far right if you are in the audience).  He wasn’t on the jumbotron.  The footage overhead was mostly Taylor or Dave.  If you had not seen or heard of the Foos before, I assure you it would seem it’s Taylor’s band.  This is all heartbreaking in retrospect… as he was dead less than a month later.  When watching the Foos during this era, you could call it “the Taylor Hawkins show, featuring Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters”.  And there is nothing I would change about that.  I’d just rather see them all play the songs.  No bombast, no light shows, no pleas to the audience.

Taylor was amazing that night, as always. He was in top form, and just full on rock god Foo's mode. It's heartbreaking not just because he is dead, but because there are aspects of suicide to this. After the dust settled, many came forward to say Taylor was being toured literally to the death. The Foos do NOT take breaks. Taylor was taking a cocktail of everything not just to escape or be high... but to get through the impossible long days. and likely had to take just as much shit at night to finally come down and fall asleep. There is a narrative that Dave worked Taylor to death, basically... and even had been told beforehand that was the case. I am not in that camp, but there are certainly plausible aspects.

You think 'how could any rock star be suicidal? Rich and powerful and beloved. Because that is for only 2 hours a night. The other 22 hours are sitting in a bus or van or waiting to get into a bus or van. It's a guided cage, but still VERY much a cage.

Here is a fan shot of ‘Learning to Fly’ from that show.  For just something from the audience and a cell phone, its pretty damn good.  Note, this gal was on the Pat side, I was about 50 yards to the left of her.  While you enjoy the song, and do!  It’s one of my favorite Foo tunes… look at the jumbotron behind Dave.  Look how much time Taylor gets.  And you get why immediately.

Now, you may know there is an official portion of the show they wisely and fully hand the concert over to Taylor.  Smart move.  He is funny and charismatic and fucking perfectly beautiful and a great singer.  Let’s just stop and enjoy the moment from this concert.  This is the last time anyone in the US saw Taylor Hawkins play/sing.