Dave Grohl Pens Love Letter to Live Music

"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. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to"

BY Allie GregoryPublished May 11, 2020

Just shy of two months into coronavirus quarantine, already a growing number of experts in the field of public health have been cautioning against scheduling live music events due to ongoing restrictions on large gatherings. Live Nation predicts it won't resume concerts at full scale until fall 2021, and drive-in and livestream concerts appear to be becoming the new norm, making it all hard to get used to.

As it turns out, Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl misses live shows just as much as we do, according to a new, heartfelt op-ed he penned for The Atlantic.

"It is the most life-affirming experience, to see your favorite performer onstage," he wrote in the piece, "In the flesh, rather than as a one-dimensional image glowing in your lap as you spiral down a midnight YouTube wormhole."

Grohl was meant to be on the Foo Fighters' 25th anniversary "Van Tour" this month, but those plans have since changed due to the ongoing pandemic. He has been keeping busy working on the Foos' new record, performing for frontline workers and in livestreams, but maintains that it's just not the same as playing to a crowd of 70,000. 

The way he described a recent show memory will have you aching for those sweaty, beer-soaked show-going days of yesteryear. Read an excerpt below.

Not to brag, but I think I've had the best seat in the house for 25 years. Because I do see you. I see you pressed against the cold front rails. I see you air-drumming along to your favorite songs in the distant rafters. I see you lifted above the crowd and carried to the stage for a glorious swan dive back into its sweaty embrace. I see your homemade signs and your vintage T-shirts. I hear your laughter and your screams and I see your tears. I have seen you yawn (yeah, you), and I've watched you pass out drunk in your seat. I've seen you in hurricane-force winds, in 100-degree heat, in subzero temperatures. I have even seen some of you grow older and become parents, now with your children's Day-Glo protective headphones bouncing on your shoulders. And each night when I tell our lighting engineer to "Light 'em up!," I do so because I need that room to shrink, and to join with you as one under the harsh, fluorescent glow.

He continued: "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. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to."

Foo Fighters are set to release a new album shortly, having completed the record back in February this year. Just the other day, Grohl compared the material to David Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance, calling it "a dance record in a weird way." Let's pray that we won't have to wait until 2021 to hear it in person. 

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