I am not what you might call a concert-goer. To date, I can count the number of concerts I have attended on one hand.
My husband and I have a list of artists or groups that we will go see if they ever come to Iowa or come close to Iowa. It isn’t a long list and one of them got checked off last year when we saw Garth Brooks.
One group that we regretted not seeing a couple of years ago when they were in Kansas City was the Foo Fighters. The show kind of jumped up on us and we let it go while being jealous of the photos and videos we saw on Facebook from our friends and family that went.
I was in a bit of shock when I heard while driving to work one morning that the Foo would be even closer, stopping by Des Moines on their current concert tour. I knew we would be going and started plotting how to get the best tickets.
When the morning came for the tickets to go on sale, I was super nervous. Waiting on a website to do its thing is not my ideal situation and I was proved right when the site froze and I lost the spot I thought I had secured. With nosebleeds or general admission left, I headed to an outside ticket site to pay too much for what turned out to be really good seats.
We had to wait a few months for the date to finally come around, but finally Nov. 10 was here and we were headed to the concert. The openers, The Struts, were good with a couple of songs I had heard on the radio. I was mostly entertained by the lead singer, his enthusiasm for his music, the substantial amount of fringe on his pants and his sequin shirt.
When they wrapped up, it was some tense moments awaiting the main act to take the stage. The curtain finally fell around the stage and we knew the moment was coming. As the lights went down and the first notes hit the speakers, the crowd was ready to go.
The Foo Fighters opened with a song off of their newest album, so I, of course, sang along like a knew it but really had no idea. The next almost three hours were filled with Dave Grohl doing his best through a horse voice to belt out hit after hit during the group’s first visit to Des Moines. He said if a broken leg didn’t stop him from finishing a concert, a bit of laryngitis was nothing.
The band was great, especially drummer Taylor Hawkins, who provided the back up vocals to help along Grohl’s rough voice. While there wasn’t a ton of flash, the Foo didn’t need it was the music was enough to keep the crowd wanting more.
A lot of the time I sat in awe that I was actually getting to see the Foo Fighters in person with the group having such a storied history and Grohl’s own background in Nirvana. When it was over I couldn’t believe it was done. It felt like I had just experienced it the first time and needed another go round to really enjoy it.
It is safe to say that, even though we got to check the Foo Fighters off of our list, we would definitely go back for a second, third or fourth concert, should they head to the Midwest again.
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com