Sound Advice: Foo Fighters with The Struts (Oct. 20)

Sometimes memories are vague and other times you remember every last detail. Take, for instance, the first time I heard Foo Fighters. I still feel the tingling sensation as the way-too-small Vinnie Barbarino-banded t-shirt cut off circulation to my chunky arms while I stared up, dumbfounded, at the “Monkey Wrench” music video playing on the TV screens at Wet Seal. I had no idea who Nirvana was, so I didn’t recognize Dave Grohl as he thrashed around above me. Back then, I was still listening to my mom’s Country albums. It was 1990-something, but Welcome Back, Kotter was practically the only thing in that store that was recognizable to me. That video, that crazy man, that band… they all eventually led me to the very first lie I ever remember telling my mom. But that’s a story for another time.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 23 years, you know Foo Fighters’ history. It might be cliché, but they rose like a phoenix from Nirvana’s ashes. Since then, we’ve been graced with nearly two and a half decades of Rock that has continually disappeared off shelves, cleaned up at awards shows and sold out arenas. While bands that rose to fame around the same time may have stuck to the same tired old routine, Foo Fighters grew with their fans. From the very beginning, Grohl seemed to have a very long, very intricate master plan and Foo Fighters only collect more followers each step of the way.

For their most recent move, Foo Fighters changed producers for their new album, Concrete and Gold. Producer Greg Kurstin previously worked with the likes of Sia and Kelly Clarkson, so the collaboration left many Foo fans scratching their heads. What came from the pairing was another solid Foo Fighters masterpiece, though, reaching the top spot across multiple Billboard charts. The first single, “Run,” sent Grohl screaming louder and from a place more guttural than we’d previously heard him in the two-ish decades prior. The follow-up, “The Sky Is a Neighborhood,” feels most different sonically for Foo Fighters, yet somehow is still exactly what I’d expect from the dudes I’ve loved for more than two thirds of my life.

I have no idea happened to that Barbarino shirt. But I still feel tingly when I hear my Foo Fighters.