FOO FIGHTERS
The Gits Investigative account for Mia Zapata.
Satyricon, Portland, Oregon
March 3, 1995
"This is kind of our first real show," Dave Grohl said haltingly into the mic. Wearing a pressed bowling shirt and a meek expression, Grohl momentarily affected his best shy-guy routine before demolishing the club. Fronting his new band, Foo Fighters, Grohl turned in a solid debut with his first post-Nirvana project since his and Chris Novoselic's impromptu set with kid-rockers the Stinky Puffs at YoYo a GoGo festival in Olympia, Washington, last summer. This performance, which helped to raise proceeds to track down the murderer of the Gits' front woman Mia Zapata, demonstrated Foo Fighters to be a match for the enormous expectations sure to be heaped onto Nirvana's surviving members throughout their careers.
The last time Grohl had performed at Portland's 225-capacity Satyricon was atop Nirvana's drum throne on New Year's Eve 1991. Three years later, and almost a year after Kurt Cobain's suicide, Grohl returned, this time playing guitar and fronting ex-germs and Nirvana collaborator Pat Smear on guitar and backing vocals and Sunny Day Real Estate's Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith on bass and drums.
From the first note of "Floaty," Foo Fighters' set was loud, unstintingly powerful, and, to use a quaint term, grungy. Though the wash of amplitude, dominated by Smear's fuzzed out guitar, saturated the lyrics in the small club, Grohl's familiar vocal tone and frequent harmonies with Smear punctuated the wail. Those expecting a bold new direction from Grohl may have left disappointed, as the band delivered tunes strikingly similar to Nirvana's hard edged guitar driven cuts. "Big Me," in particular, took already stratospheric energy levels into orbit with a frenzied tempo, heavy overdrive, and keening vocals. By the time the band launched into "Alone+Easy Target," the over-capacity crowd was heaving up against the stage, the first two ranks doubled overboars, as Grohl and Smear screamed the chorus "Get out! Get out!" After apologizing for the brevity of the eight-song set, Grohl dedicated the final number, "Exhausted," to Novoselic. "We know he's smoking dope out there somewhere," he joked.