Photo by Matt Cohen.
It may not have been a total surprise, but there was still a waft of uncertainty floating in the air last night as the eager crowd gathered into the 9:30 Club: were the Foo Fighters going to play?
Short answer: They came, they rocked, they conquered.
But the real question to be asked is: was this the appropriate night for a surprise two-hour Foo Fighters set? The show, which was billed as birthday bash for Trouble Funk’s jovial, legendary band leader, Big Tony, was something of a celebration of D.C. music’s past; a kind of sequel to the big punk-funk throwback jam last year, which was put on in conjunction with the Corcoran’s “PUMP ME UP: The D.C. Subculture of the 1980s” exhibit and the release of the documentary The Legend of Cool “Disco” Dan.
As such, the evening kicked off with a set from The Don’t Need Its, which featured Bad Brains’ Dr. Know and Darryl Jenifer, Scream’s Pete Stahl, and Grohl ripping through a raucous 40-minute set of Bad Brains classics. It was better than any set the full Bad Brains have played since, well, a long time. (No, the full band didn’t come out, so I was wrong, but this was close enough).
But the star of the show was Big Tony. Well after Trouble Funk left the stage, the crowd occasionally broke out into “To-ny! To-ny!” chants. And for good reason, the venerable D.C. go-go band played brilliantly funky, extremely tight set, grooving through classics like “Pump Me Up,” “Let’s Get Small,” and “Drop the Bomb.” “I’m going to remember this night for the rest of my life,” Big Tony told the crowd with an ear-to-ear grin on his face. Indeed, it was a set for the history books, and that was before 9:30 Club owner Seth Hurwitz joined the band on drums for a cover of Wild Cherry’s funk standard “Play That Funky Music White Boy.”
Photo by Matt Cohen.
By the time Dave Grohl came back out with nothing but a guitar in hand, it was pretty obvious that at least a few Foo Fighters tunes would be played: Foo Fighters t-shirts mysteriously popped up in the merch booth for a cool $20. But what followed surpassed everyone’s expectations. The band played a full two-hour set, conquering all of their big hits, like “My Hero,” “Monkey Wrench, “Generator,” “Learn to Fly,” and “Everlong,” along with some rarely played early tracks. As Grohl told the crowd, this was one of three shows the band has played in the past two years (the others being a Super Bowl pre-show show and a Grammy performance this past year), so there was certainly a renewed sense of energy from the band. That much was evident when Grohl recalled how the last time they played 9:30 Club, he rocked a solo on the bar and took a shot of Jägermeister. Much to the pleasure of fans and their camera phones, he dutifully recreated that moment.
In case there was any doubt that the point of last night’s soiree was the legacy and history of D.C.’s storied music scene, Grohl was keen on reminding everyone. “As a local kid growing up outside of Washington D.C., Trouble Funk were legends just as they are today,” he told the crowd. “I opened up for Trouble Funk when I was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old and every time I’ve seen the band play it has inspired me to go home and discover music and play music and play as well as I can.” Let that be a lesson from St. Dave: No matter how many Super Bowls you play, never forget your roots.
Editor’s note: I was wrong, they did not play “Learn to Fly.” I think I just wanted them to play it so bad I imagined it happened.
