It’s almost August and it’s Monday and I wasn’t feeling great this weekend so that makes Monday even harder to bear because the weekend was somewhat lost, so you know, this Monday doesn’t feel earned. If that makes sense. It does to me. A Monday in the summer is rough business, but it’s easier to roll with if you had a nice summer weekend. Then it’s worth it. But if your weekend was a bust, or a near bust, then dear God, that summer Monday is even harder to embark on. Such is the case with today. I’m feeling better. You know, if you care. But still, the Monday is here regardless.
How do you combat such a Monday? Well, sleeping it away and hunkering down until Tuesday isn’t an option because dude, you got bills to pay. So what do you do? You soldier through and you soldier through the only way you know how; with loud music playing.
Oh but wait! Plot twist. You share a Spotify account with your Darling Wife, who is currently Momming the shit out the summer with your three year old daughter. So you could be going about your business – TPS reports, spread sheets, emails, listening to your preferred Monday music, when all of sudden, it stops. It just stops. It’s not the Internet connection. No. It’s your girls, out on an adventure, adventuring along to the joyous sounds of whatever Disney soundtrack the little one is feeling today. Good for them, kind of a bummer for you. This situation has played out numerous times over the course of this summer and as a result, I’ve found myself turning to the friendly confines of YouTube, in search of something else to listen to.
So far I’ve listened to concerts from Portugal. The Man, Ghost of Paul Revere, Nathaniel Ratliff & the Night Sweats, as well as snippets from old friends Dave Matthews Band and Phish. Today, when faced with the sudden unavailability of my bevy of carefully curated playlists, I stumbled across the video of the Foo Fighters’ set at something called Rock am Ring 2018.
No joke. This find turned my Monday around. It’s as if YouTube knew my straights and how dire they were and served up exactly what I needed; like an experienced bartender knowing the exact drink a certain facial expression or woe be gone demeanor called for. It’s as if the Internet is reading my mind.
Ha. As if, right?
Anyway, this thing called Rock am Ring 2018 is a pretty big rock festival over in Germany that took place earlier this summer. It was headlined by the Foo Fighters, along with Thirty Seconds to Mars, Gorillaz, Muse and Marilyn Manson. The lineup was the living and breathing incarnation of the grungy rock station on the dial that barely exists anymore. The Foo Fighters closed out the show and based on the video, they brought every ounce of American rock ‘n roll they had in them, which is a lot.
Drum solos!
Guitar solos!
Solos in which the guitarist and drummer trade off riffs, one echoing the other!
More guitar solos!
Extended jams anchored by a repeating bass line!
A drum riser that rose some twenty feet up in the air!
And covers!
Covers?
Yeah, sure. Quality rock covers of course. There was an Alice Cooper tune, a jam based around “Another One Bites the Dust,” a Ramones’ song, drummer Taylor Hawkins singing “Under Pressure” with Dave Grohl and the Hawkins singing “Stay With Me” while hammering away on drums. And yes, let’s all acknowledge what a great rock drummer Hawkins is. I feel like he doesn’t get enough credit because he plays in a band fronted by one of the best rock drummers ever, but if you watch this performance, that dude is the engine that drives the band. Grohl is obviously the heart and soul, but Hawkins is the effin’ wind beneath band’s wings.
Speaking of my man Dave Grohl, dude was struggling throughout this performance, battling some kind of nasty cold that limited his voice. Towards the end, he explained the illness in dad terms, terms I 100% understood. His kids were sick, wanted a kiss before he left and as a dad, you can’t say no, even though you can see with your own eyes the rivers of snot running from their nose. So ya give them a kiss and live with the consequences; consequences like a lost voice. It’s a dad thing. You do what you gotta do.
But busted voice be damned, Grohl played on, doing his best to be the best Dave Grohl he could. When needed, Hawkins, stepped up to sing, and at times, Grohl relied on the giant crowd to help him get through, something they were more than eager to do. It was admirable watching Grohl power his way through and if reading into things too much was something you are prone to do, you could find Grohl’s performance inspiring. I mean buddy, if Grohl can overcome a bum voice to still play a rock show for thousands, you can surely get through a summer Monday, right?
Or, if you, like me, realize that rock music is clinging to relevance and barely hanging on to the whirling dervish that is the current zeitgeist and hierarchy of musical genres, it’s refreshing to see one of the legitimate big time rock bands left still doing their thing and not showing any signs of slowing down. The Foo Fighters currently hold the title of America’s Rock Band and if this performance was any indication, they don’t look to be abdicating that title any time soon.
Now let’s bring on the rest of the week.
Categories: Music, Today in Thanks YouTube
Giddy Up America 
Hi I like that which you put out in this blog I have many mornings like that and there for I had thought I was the only one that had it.. I have been thew it when I was young all the time, and now with trying to do a blog I seem to have it more all the time…. Now that I am not working at all for pay I have days that I just do not see what I am doing on this earth any ways or for what good am I, so you see there are a not of others in that same thought line I will stop at this, yours alway do keep up your wrighttings, they help us all.
Thanks for reading!