Foo Fighters return to tour after drummer’s passing
A retrospective of the Foo Fighters. PHOTO CREDIT: Guitar.com
Almost a year has passed since the untimely passing of the Foo Fighters’ drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and the band has announced their return to performing this summer. After three decades of making music, the band still has no plans to retire.
The Foo Fighters began in 1994 as the solo project of Dave Grohl, the drummer for the grunge band Nirvana. While Grohl only wrote one song for the band, “Marigold,” he would continue to write his own tracks and release them under pseudonyms separate from the Nirvana name.
Upon Kurt Cobain’s death, Grohl had already been working on the demos which would become the Foo Fighters’ debut album. After brief stints as a touring drummer for Tom Petty and Pearl Jam, Grohl decided to release the Foo Fighters self-titled debut.
Grohl performed almost every part for every instrument on the album. The album was quite successful, leading to the additions of William Goldsmith and Nate Mendel, the former drummer and bassist of Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as Nirvana’s former touring guitarist, Pat Smear.
While this lineup would continue to evolve over the years, these four would write and record their 1996 sophomore album, “The Colour and the Shape,” their most famous and best selling album. Not one track on the album feels out of place or like filler, and no two songs feel the same.
“My Hero” is heard by many people as a tribute to Cobain, Grohl’s friend and former Nirvana bandmate, yet Grohl claims that it is about seeing everyday people as heroes. “Monkey Wrench” is a driving and powerful song telling the story of a relationship falling apart. “Everlong” is widely considered the band’s magnum opus, cited by many lists as one of the greatest modern rock songs.
While producing this album, Goldsmith was fired from the band, with Grohl recording the drum parts, opening a position for Taylor Hawkins, formerly the touring drummer for Alanis Morsette. His drumming would become a key part of creating the sound of the Foo Fighters.
While the band would continue to have commercial success with their next few albums, each producing iconic tracks, it would take until 2011 to recreate the success they had found with “The Colour and the Shape,” when they released “Wasting Light.”
The band decided to record the album in Grohl’s home garage, giving the album a more raw and authentic feel. While “Rope,” “These Days” and “Walk” are generally considered the most successful tracks from the album, it is hard to pinpoint a single song which does not sound amazing or fit with the rest of the album. This record received four Grammy awards and is generally viewed as their second best album.
Once again, the Foos could not replicate their success on the following album “Sonic Highways.” To accompany this record’s production, the band traveled across the country with an HBO documentary crew, and recorded in studios across the country to give each song a unique sound, local to the region in which it was recorded and produced.
While the album was received positively, fans generally consider this album to be their weakest due to its limited length, and more radio-friendly sound. Their songs “Outside,” recorded in Joshua Tree, California and “In The Clear,” from New Orleans, are two of their best deep tracks.
Their two most current albums would once again produce commercial success, neither had any particular standout songs. “Concrete and Gold” attempted to implement guest artists in a manner which the band had never attempted in the past, including Justin Timberlake and Paul McCartney.
“Medicine at Midnight” attempted a shift in its genre. The band described it as a dance-rock album, highlighted by bright and bouncy rock throughout. During their recording sessions, the band continued to have strange and difficult-to-explain encounters, inspiring Grohl to create a horror film, titled “Studio 666,” inspired by the sessions.
While in South America, promoting this album on tour, the band announced the tragic passing of Taylor Hawkins, their cornerstone drummer, while assuring fans that the band would continue. After two concerts to pay tribute to Hawkins, featuring many of his favorite artists and bringing the music community together, the band has announced that they will be performing at a series of festivals over the 2023 festival season, beginning at Boston Calling, on Memorial Day weekend.
The band has yet to announce who their drummer will be moving forward, leading their fanbase into rampant speculation. Among names thrown about are Josh Freese, Rufus Taylor and even Hawkins’ son, Shane. Freese has worked with bands like Sublime, Guns N’ Roses, Paramore and Weezer in the past, as well as the Foo Fighters themselves during their tribute concerts. Rufus Taylor, son of Queen’s Roger Taylor, is currently the drummer for the Darkness. He grew up modeling much of his playing style after Hawkins, and also performed with the band during the tribute concerts. Others have theorized that Grohl will return to the drum set for albums, finding a touring drummer.
While their future is uncertain, the Foo Fighters are adamant that they will continue as a group. They have helped define rock as a genre over the past three decades, and look to continue doing so, just as they believe Hawkins would want.