TRAVELING & GIGS

“When I was a young boy”, no, kidding. It starts and ends with lyrics.

I was considering scrapping ‘Rockculture’ altogether because I’m not allowed to write up the gigs I’m contracted to report on for other outlets, and I am often too lazy to report on the gigs I go to for pleasure.

But as ROCKCULTURE is no more and no less than a personal blog, which some of you may enjoy reading, I shall continue to write. It is what I do.

I find concerts post-Covid WEIRD. Gigs are my happy place but being surrounded by sweaty, music-loving peers doesn’t feel the same anymore.

After attending four gigs in five days during the summer of 2022 – Pearl Jam, Iggy Pop, Jerry Cantrell, Nick Cave – I came down with you-know-what.

I got back in the saddle in time for Hyde Park BST, seeing Pearl Jam (again, because once is not enough, musical geniuses they are, different set and contagious positive energy) and Duran Duran.

I’d waited 40 years to see Duran Duran, and, man, what a disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong. Nick Rhodes is still the artistic mastermind behind it all, but I could have just watched a video and listened to a record. The press seemed to think it was fabulous. It was not. It was beautiful to SEE, but not to listen to. And the audience was an entitled Ibiza crowd who have too much money and no manners. Late 50-year-olds seriously thinking they still have a chance to bed John Taylor. Ew.   

Nothing mattered to me this year, other than finally seeing Duran Duran, going to as many Pearl Jam gigs as possible, and then going to the Taylor Hawkins tribute in London, maybe even the one in LA.

If you know me, you know how PERSISTANT I can be. Hence, I eventually got tickets to see the Foo Fighters at Wembley.

I cried for the duration of the concert. So did Dave Grohl.

The concert wasn’t perfectly choreographed, but that was fine. A lot of healing was done. Still, Taylor Hawkins’s death will forever leave a gaping hole in music.

Fast forward to the Kia Forum tribute. Thanks to a special friend, I was able to attend.

This time, no crying. Just admiration. Admiration of artists I formerly looked down upon. Because who knew that Miley Cyrus has one of the fiercest voices I’ve ever heard; Taylor Momsen, more than a pretty face. Both women literally blew me away. In combination with P!NK, Alanis Morissette, and Joan Jett, I would like to think that women ruled this tribute. So empowering, but also so healing.

Speaking of powerful women: Grace Jones at the Hollywood Bowl. Another force of nature. How is it possible for a 74-year-old woman to perform that kind of show? Don’t say drugs (because everyone around me tells me she is fueled by drugs – if she did the amount of drugs, they all said she does, she’d be dead, not hulla-ing for fifteen minutes straight). I’m a bit jealous to be fair, also, because her son is her keyboarder. I wonder if I can be in my son’s band. I could play the triangle.

Was also lucky enough to go to see Bring Me the Horizon in LA, who reeled their energy back to their original hard core; nice touch to bring in Bryan Garris (Knocked Loose) for Diamonds Aren’t Forever.

My musical taste is broader than I imagined, by the way. Why? Because when rushing to the Hollywood Bowl for yet another concert, the Pet Shop Boys were already on stage, and I sang and smiled for the duration of their set. Music connects, and it doesn’t have to be metal.

Musically, the co-headliner New Order, were not as smooth as one would have hoped. But the tunes still ring true, and their music and lyrics are a source of infinite joy.

And last, but not least, this emo girl decided to see My Chemical Romance for the first time in her life.

When people reckon “EMO” is a new thing – I will enlighten you. It is not. Every song has lyrics you can find meaning to. The emos of now are no different from the emos back in the day. It is as I have always said, “LYRICS MATTER”.

Gerard Way understands the depth of my soul, just like Andrew Eldritch did 35 years ago. All you have to do is listen. And go to gigs.

Dave Grohl @ Kia Forum (Rockculture®)

Miley Cyrus - photo by ROCKCULTURE®

Young Boy Gerard Way / My Chemical Romance - photo by ROCKCULTURE®

Foo Fighters @ The Anthem, Washington D.C.

So apparently, The Anthem is THE new rock club of the East Coast. It is not just a rock club, my friends, it is a concert hall with the most epic acoustics, the most beautiful design, but with a feel of a cosy rock club, holding anywhere between 2.500 and 6.000 music lovers. It sits on the redeveloped Wharf on Washington’s Southwest Waterfront and has been developed by no other than Seth Hurwitz, the legend behind D.C.’s other epic venue 9:30.

So, who would you want to open up such a venue? You would probably want a local hero and there happens to be this one guy who played his first ever gig in D.C. at 16 years of age. His name is Dave Grohl and his current band is of course the Foo Fighters.

The initial warm up gig for “Friends & Family” on Wednesday goes down like a storm, but the official opening night on Thursday is by far the longest show the Foos may have ever played. 2 ¾ hours of Foo Fighters, reminiscing about his days on the wharf eating jumbo crabs on the waterfront, listening to the local radio stations and mostly importantly playing a huge range of songs from “I’ll Stick Around” to “The Pretender”, all along teasing the audience with a universal question these days “Is rock’n’roll dead?”. Not if the Foo Fighters have anything to say about it and to prove this phenomenon not only have they enlisted three drop dead gorgeous backing vocalists for some of their new stuff from “Concrete and Gold”, they also ask The Anthem guy himself, Seth Hurwitz, to come and play drums on the Rolling Stones cover “Bitch”, giving the epic Taylor Hawkins a little more limelight in the process.

The gig without a curfew ended with “Everlong” and it doesn’t matter how often you have heard or seen this song- smiles and goosebumps all around in this epic new venue, The Anthem.