On This Day in History

On this date in history, 7/26/2018, Foo Fighters and The Struts played a phenomenal show at Deer Creek in Noblesville, IN (Ruoff Mortgage Music Center if you insist on being up to date). The moon was full, the weather was perfect, and the place was sold out and packed tight with a fanatical crowd of Dave Grohl’s tribe. The Struts opened the show with an enjoyable and peppy set of good songs and great vocals. Luke Spiller, the lead singer/front man of the band, has a look and style that conjures up memories of the late Freddie Mercury, also possessing an impressive vocal range. However, I felt he got a bit carried away with attempting to get the crowd to sing along and wave their hands in the air. The Struts appear to have a good future ahead of them, having opened for the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Who, Guns N’ Rose, and toured with Foo Fighters. Hopefully they will rely on their real strength, which is their music. Three years have passed since Dave Grohl performed with his band at this same venue. At that show, Dave had to remain seated (in a throne made of guitars) due to a broken leg. On this night he was back on his feet and roamed the stage like a man possessed. As a matter of fact, if you could bottle the energy of Grohl and Taylor Hawkins, the Foo’s drummer, you could likely power the entire planet for at least 7 years. Like the previous show, heavy emphasis was on the impressive list of Foo Fighter hits and classics, but new songs from their most recent album were fantastic, too. For me (and probably many others) some of the best stuff was during the block of songs when Grohl introduced the band. Hearing Foo Fighters covering Alice Cooper (Under My Wheels), Ramones (Blitzkrieg Bop), and a hilarious mashup of the piano part for John Lennon’s Imagine with Van Halen’s Jump sung over the top of it was priceless. All of this was a buildup to the moment when Dave went back to play drums while Taylor Hawkins and Luke Spiller from The Struts channeled David Bowie and Freddie Mercury in an outstanding cover of the Bowie/Queen classic Under Pressure. Foo Fighters rocked at a relentless pace for 2 1/2 hours, featuring a killer light show and loud, but crystal clear sound. There aren’t many bands around these days who can stage a grand spectacle of a show like this (and have the songs to pull it off), so I hope we can keep the members of Foo Fighters healthy and happy, and doing this for years to come!

Written By “The Concert Critic” AKA Braddon S. Williams

A Little About The Author:

My name is Braddon S. Williams and I share Lemmy’s birthday, Christmas Eve (12/24/1961). I started playing guitar when I was 13 years old, not long after discovering the first Kiss album. From there, the process of discovery was unstoppable, and I find that I am still constantly finding new artists who inspire me all these years later. I began writing a series of essays detailing all my concert experiences throughout the years on my Facebook page and was asked if it would be okay to publish them on the Vinyl Lair site, which I obviously saw as a wonderful opportunity! From there I decided to take the 10 album challenge, but quickly determined that I would have a terrible time limiting all my musical loves to such an inadequate number, so I opted to go for 365. I figured if “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, then an album a day should keep boredom at bay! I am in the process of putting an old band of mine back together and also working up a set of mixed covers and originals for a solo acoustic act. Music is my fountain of youth, along with a love of dogs, beautiful women (and anyone who can make me laugh and carry on a deep conversation). Oh yes, I am also a movie fanatic. Feel free to send me a friend request on Facebook or follow my Instagram account @sinisterbrad.