There was a moment when Dave Grohl stopped the music and quizzed the adoring, rambunctious, rafter-packing, sold out crowd at the Spokane Arena last Friday.
I put my hand up for his first question, when he asked who of us had seen the Foo Fighters before, and wasn’t all that surprised by the other hands and hollering around me.
Then he asked who’d never been to a Foo show before. It seemed like just as many hands went up, and Grohl and Co. went on to try and win them, us and everyone else over.
I think it worked, and I think I know when it worked. A few songs later, all of us were singing along with “My Hero,” the Foo hit from 1998 celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday. Smartphone flashlights blazing, we were all buzzing with anthemic arena energy.
Or it might’ve been when Grohl told the band he’d play solo on “Big Me,” from the band’s self-titled debut album from 1995.
Honestly, it might’ve been when Grohl introduced the band’s new drummer, Josh Freese, who took over after the sudden death of Taylor Hawkins last year.
After Grohl said Freese’s name, he said we’d surely heard him before and what followed was a quick tour of Freese’s sonic resume. The band played a few measures of “Whip It” by Devo, who he’d played with for nearly two decades. Then we went to “March of the Pigs” by Nine Inch Nails, another band Freese was in. And then, in surely the oddest moment of the night, Grohl yanked some audience member on stage to sing a Michael Bublé song, another troubadour Freese had backed.
The crowd whooped it up for Freese, a sure sign that the band would march on despite the loss of the beloved Hawkins.
Freese had already made his presence known and welcome during the Foo's song, “Breakout.” As the rest of the band — Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett and keyboardist Rami Jaffee — gathered around his sprawling drum kit, Freese pounded away, clobbering beats that I could feel in my veins and organs. Grohl returned to the front of the stage and gave us a look that said, “See?”
We saw, we rocked.
Grohl, of course, was the drummer in Nirvana, and it was this era of rock that originally electrified me as a teenager. So while I’ve seen the Foo Fighters and knew they’d put on an uproarious show, I was there for the opening act: the Breeders.
The Breeders — a group made up of sisters Kim and Kelley Deal on guitars, bassist Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson on drums — was a key band for me in high school, during the time when I had Nirvana on repeat. I listened to their first two albums, Pod and Last Splash, over and over and over again.
It just so happens that this year is the 30th anniversary of Last Splash, their biggest commercial success, and after a brief stint with the Foo, the Breeders are doing a tour in celebration of that milestone. They’ll be in Seattle in October, and I’ll be there as well.
In Spokane, however, they seemed to be still shaking off the cobwebs. Kim, who leads the band, didn’t say much to the audience. And when she did, she mistook Spokane for somewhere in Montana. Another time, she seemed to be aware/confused that the audience was only there to see the Foo Fighters. It took Macpherson to walk to the front of the stage and introduce the band.
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Photos of Foo Fighters performing with The Breeders at the Spokane Arena on August 4, 2023
For me, I liked it all. But even if I hadn’t, all would’ve been forgiven when I heard the repeating guitar notes that kick off Last Splash on the song “New Year.” Kelley played them a few times over as the band readied itself. Then they all joined, leading the song through its loping beginning with swooping lyrics, before it hits the beat and the song gallops toward its heavy conclusion.
For the last two songs, Kim grabbed the bass, the instrument she played with great force and charisma for the Pixies. You could see the power she still has with that instrument, driving the songs with melody and purpose. They ended their set with Kim’s Pixies hit, “Gigantic.” I was happy to hear it, because I know we won’t when the Pixies come to play the Pavilion next month.
But for me, as a kid in the ‘90s, the Breeders were always in my CD player before the Pixies. I don’t think I was alone. When Grohl appeared on stage a half hour later, he was wearing a shirt with just one word: Breeders.
