Foo Fighters Frontman Dave Grohl Says Live Music Will Return Again
As concert stages remain dark, artists and musicians standby in the wings ready to take the stage once again in the hopeful near future. The pandemic has cast a shadow over nearly every aspect of life, including the joys of seeing live performances.
As time marches closer to summer, artists who typically tour during the summer months are either canceling or postponing tour dates, leaving the warm summer months without the usual music festivals and tours. And while some historians insist the pandemic will alter every aspect of human life, rockers like Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters insist live music and concerts will someday return.
Grohl offered his thoughts in The Atlantic about where the world is today and reassured fans that they will once again, be able to bond with music lovers to “sing at the top of our lungs.” Adding, “because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human.”
Grohl envisions a very different summer
The Foo Fighters were supposed to be performing this summer, likely hitting various cities throughout the United States. Grohl asked readers where they were planning to spend July 4th this year. Because his plans were seriously altered.
“I know exactly where I was supposed to be: FedExField, outside Washington, D.C., with my band Foo Fighters and roughly 80,000 of our closest friends,” he wrote. “We were going to be celebrating the 25th anniversary of our debut album.” Adding, “Well, things have changed.”
“Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has reduced today’s live music to unflattering little windows that look like doorbell security footage and sound like Neil Armstrong’s distorted transmissions from the moon, so stuttered and compressed,” he continued. “It’s enough to make Max Headroom seem lifelike.” Grohl said while he can deal with making homemade lasagna for a while at home, he still craves the thrill and energy of performing live.
The feeling of being at a live show will return
Grohl reminisces about the feeling he gets not only performing live but being at a live show. “Arm in arm, I have sung at the top of my lungs with people I may never see again. All to celebrate and share the tangible, communal power of music,” he wrote. He also recalled performing for Bruce Springsteen and the thrill and terror he felt.
But Grohl also acknowledges that the current public health crisis threw a bucket of ice-cold water on concert-going passion. “In today’s world of fear and unease and social distancing, it’s hard to imagine sharing experiences like these ever again,” he admitted. “I don’t know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life.”
Although the world is pausing on live events, Grohl insists the experience of live music will return.
“But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human. We need moments that reassure us that we are not alone. That we are understood. That we are imperfect. And, most important, that we need each other. I have shared my music, my words, my life with the people who come to our shows. And they have shared their voices with me. Without that audience—that screaming, sweating audience—my songs would only be sound. But together, we are instruments in a sonic cathedral, one that we build together night after night. And one that we will surely build again.”
