Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, like fans, looks forward to return of live music

David Grohl misses the shows, too.

With concerts still on hold across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, Grohl, of the Foo Fighters (and Nirvana), penned an essay about looking forward to the return of live music.

In a piece titled “The Day the Live Concert Returns,” published Monday to The Atlantic website, Grohl writes about where he was set to be on the Fourth of July at the height of the summer concert season: “FedExField, outside Washington, D.C., with my band Foo Fighters and roughly 80,000 of our closest friends.”

But the coronavirus pandemic has forced concerts to be zoomed or livestreamed from artists’ private homes and backyards rather than public venues. And while Grohl acknowledged that staying home is important and a luxury, especially for those not working in hospitals or delivering packages, he is “hungry for a big old plate of sweaty, ear-shredding, live rock and roll, ASAP. The kind that makes your heart race, your body move, and your soul stir with passion.”

He writes: “There is nothing like the energy and atmosphere of live music. It is the most life-affirming experience, to see your favorite performer onstage, in the flesh, rather than as a one-dimensional image glowing in your lap as you spiral down a midnight YouTube wormhole.”

Grohl recalls the iconic performance by Freddie Mercury and Queen at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985, which demonstrated the connection between performer and audience. He also remembers seeing U2 on their 2001 Elevation Tour and being taken by the spare, raw and intimate show.

Another memory was meeting with Bruce Springsteen before a Foo Fighters show and the message of connecting with audiences.

Plus, he boasts he has the best seat in the house onstage — and he sees everyone: “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.”

The Foo Fighters were set to hit the road for their 25th anniversary tour. The 2020 Van Tour was set to retrace the band’s 1995 tour and kick off in April in Phoenix.

The tour is instead planning to go off in the fall starting Oct. 1 in Hamilton, Ontario. There is no Pittsburgh stop, but the band will play in two shows in Ohio in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

The essay ends with Grohl writing that shows will return because they have to — the common experience of music, singing and joining together makes people humans.

“In today’s world of fear and unease and social distancing, it’s hard to imagine sharing experiences like these ever again,” he said. “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. It’s not a choice. We’re human.”

He goes on, “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.”

The Foo Fighters recently posted a video of their full concert at Hyde Park in London from June 2006. Watch it here: