The Foo Fighters – A Real Rock Band for the 21st Century

Excuse the hyperbole, but in today’s world of radio rock in which Country Music is Pop, and most Pop Music is the soundtrack to a commercial, are the Foo Fighters the last real rock band?

No disrespect intended to the countless rock artists out there creating fine works of art – albeit in relative anonymity — but in terms of mainstream popular music the Foo Fighters are one of the few acts that have succeeded in marrying popularity with independence.

The Foo Fighters seamlessly blend influences of the British Invasion, Grunge, Hard Rock, and Punk into music that both is both appealing purely on an entertainment level, and also deceptively complex. And in a world of synthesized drumbeats, Miley Cyrus and vacuous Country trash about trucks and cutoff jeans, these guys actually get airplay.

This is no small feat, and their most recent release Wasted Light is hardly a pile of throw-away pop ditties befitting of a light beer commercial. It’s complex, creative music, that is both sensitive, aggressive, and occasionally physically exhausting. These guys just bring it, and one never gets the sense that there is any underlying concern about crafting something deliberately approachable or commercial. They just do what they do. By all accounts they are successful while keeping their integrity intact. You won’t hear them on Glee either.

I just wish these guys would (or could) play a venue smaller than a stadium, because I’m too old for standing with 60,000 of my closest friends in a ball field. Then again when you are one of the last real rock bands, a lot of people want to see you.

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