Dave Grohl is my Hero.

Foo Fighters at the Pensacola Civic Center
(c) Amanda Lyon

Alright, I admit it... I'm a bit of a concert junkie... I've probably said this before, and I might say it again in the future, but Sunday's show was by far the best rock concert I have ever seen! I saw Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World and Against ME! on Sunday. The show needless to say, ROCKED.

I have never seen any of these bands live. I have, however, been addicted to Foo Fighters since I was about nine or ten. That's when they first appeared on MTV if I'm not mistaken... You know, back when they actually played music. I remember sitting in front of the TV, about two feet from the screen and watching the videos for "Big Me" (the one that pokes fun at the old Mentos commercials) and "Everlong" and thinking, "Wow, I really like these guys!" I don't know how many of you can remember when you decided what you wanted to listen to. I know my mom always made me listen to the stuff she did. That wasn't always a bad thing. She listened to The Police. I remember stealing her CD in 4th grade. But shh. Don't tell her.

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been in love with the Foo Fighters for years. A decade to be specific. That's a long time to like one band. In all of that time though, I still had never seen them live. But yet I saw one of the newer bands I like, Saosin, four times last year alone? How come I couldn't see Foo Fighters? So I finally decided to drop the mass amount of money on a pit ticket to see them about three days after they went on sale. Go figure. Pit tickets were GONE. My friend and I ended up getting nose-bleed seats in the Pensacola Civic Center. It didn't matter. The show was phenomenal.

I experienced just about every emotion possible during the show. I was relatively bored during the Against ME! set, but only because I only knew one of their songs. I enjoyed their performance though. I'm just not a big fan of their singers voice. I can only handle so many hoarse singers (Dave Grohl is one of them). The middle group was Jimmy Eat World. I came across them when I discovered AOL radio in 2004. They're also a favorite of mine. Needless to say, I was pretty excited during their set. They played all my favorites, and one that was from their 2nd album that I didn't know that well. My friend and I were singing/screaming the whole time. I'm sure you've all heard the song "The Middle." Well, much to my disappointment, they closed with that song. Oh well. I'm sure they did that for a reason though. It was their most popular song. I was also very upset because this venue was an indoor venue and there were people smoking in front of us. Not just cigarettes either. I know that's the stereotypical thing about rock shows, but damn, take it outside!

Every angry emotion I had running through me went away after Jimmy's set though. I've been waiting for this moment for at least a month! Sure enough, Dave Grohl strolls out onto the stage as if nothing was going on. It was just another day for him. Another performance. I was definitely not feeling the same as him. I'm sure he was excited for the show, because most musicians that like what they do get excited before they perform; however, I think my level of happiness topped his by far.

During their set, I was moved from ecstasy to tears within minutes of each other. I would get upset about the lack of movement in the pit area, and it would swiftly be wiped away by glee. They played a few old favorites acoustically on a separate stage that came down from the ceiling. That was when most of the tears fell. Dave started out the song "My Hero" on solo acoustic guitar which ended with the full band and then some. They had some guest performers with them on this tour. They had a violin girl, another guitarist, and an accordion player. Sounds like a funky mix doesn't it? Either way, it fit. When they went back to full band on the first stage, they began with "Everlong." They played around with the crowd during that song. They'd stop and start and switch from solo guitar to full band. The end result being about nine minutes long, and segueing perfectly into "Monkey Wrench." So of course, my mood went bipolar again. Tears to jumping up and down, screaming with excitement followed by a little bit of air-Guitar Hero.

They closed with "All My Life" and left the stage. You know how bands do. We're all screaming for them to play an encore and suddenly the screen shows Dave's face. He's making motions like "No no. We're done. Go home." The crowd continued to scream. So finally he starts holding up fingers. One. Scream. Two. Scream... Pause. Three? Scream!! He then proceeded to shrug and walk away from the camera. About two excruciatingly long minutes, they came back on stage to do some encores. Dave then told a story about the song "Big Me" and how people liked to throw Mentos at him so they retired the song for a while. Some kid tried throwing Icebreakers at him instead at this show, and after the song, he picked them up, paused, then exclaimed, "Doesn't count!! Wrong @!$%#in' candy, dumbass!!"

After "Big Me," they played their new single, "Long Road to Ruin" and Dave told another story. This one was about how he woke up that morning, and had two choices: One, to stay in bed, and rest his voice because it was already pretty "@!$%#ed up" from the tour (though I believe he performed better as the show went on); Two, to get up and play a badass show for "[us] mother@!$%#ers." He said that he chose to play the show and that the next song would tell us why. The last song was "Best of You" and for damn good reason. If you've never heard the song, visit their myspace and have a listen to one of the greatest songs ever written.

Of course as soon as he started, I was in tears again. They cleared quickly but then returned just as fast. The show was over. I didn't want it to end. I never want it to end. I want my life to be one long Foo Fighters show. Maybe with some other awesome bands involved so Dave can rest his voice, but I want my life to be nothing but this. Music and emotion. I hope you have something that sparks your emotions just like this concert has done for me.

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