There was so much planned. I was going to write about how breaking his leg was the best thing to happen to Dave Grohl and his band in a decade, reinvigorating and raising interest in a world-renowned rock group whose music had become a bit stale. I was going to write about their hilariously absurd photo release that granted them access to all professional photographers' images of the band performing live in formats that don't even exist yet, across the universe, forever, and how stupid that is. Most of all, I was hoping to write about how great they were live.
But, as the band wrote on their Instagram moments after their headlining performance in front of 80,000 people got cancelled four songs in, "Mother nature always wins."
The sky was dark when it should have been bright for at least an hour before the band began to play, but you knew things were really about to get shitty when the group's billowing curtain covering the front of the stage started to split apart due to high winds.
Then the rain came, barrelling into the audience and band as Dave Grohl and his rock'n'roll throne appeared on stage and the group launched into a hearty rendition of "Everlong." Midway between the band's next song, The Colour and the Shape classic "Monkey Wrench," Grohl took a moment to address the crowd. "I don't care about this," he said, pointing to his cast. "I don't care about that [pointing towards the sky]." He promised to play all night. Then, as nature had intended, the storm picked up even harder as they launched right into the song's climax.
Did they deliver a spot-on rendition of "Learn to Fly"? It was hard to tell — I was too busy hiding in a partly flooded porta-potty.
The show was cancelled one song later, halfway between "Something From Nothing" and the band's melodic, noodle-y segue into "The Pretender," with the group quickly being whisked away while Grohl screamed he was sorry repeatedly from his chair, warning the runaway crowd that it wasn't safe.
The band's planned set list circled in small groups online after that: "Aurora"; Breakout"; "Best of You". The concert that could have been — what a beautiful thing.
But, as the band wrote on their Instagram moments after their headlining performance in front of 80,000 people got cancelled four songs in, "Mother nature always wins."
The sky was dark when it should have been bright for at least an hour before the band began to play, but you knew things were really about to get shitty when the group's billowing curtain covering the front of the stage started to split apart due to high winds.
Then the rain came, barrelling into the audience and band as Dave Grohl and his rock'n'roll throne appeared on stage and the group launched into a hearty rendition of "Everlong." Midway between the band's next song, The Colour and the Shape classic "Monkey Wrench," Grohl took a moment to address the crowd. "I don't care about this," he said, pointing to his cast. "I don't care about that [pointing towards the sky]." He promised to play all night. Then, as nature had intended, the storm picked up even harder as they launched right into the song's climax.
Did they deliver a spot-on rendition of "Learn to Fly"? It was hard to tell — I was too busy hiding in a partly flooded porta-potty.
The show was cancelled one song later, halfway between "Something From Nothing" and the band's melodic, noodle-y segue into "The Pretender," with the group quickly being whisked away while Grohl screamed he was sorry repeatedly from his chair, warning the runaway crowd that it wasn't safe.
The band's planned set list circled in small groups online after that: "Aurora"; Breakout"; "Best of You". The concert that could have been — what a beautiful thing.
