a rockin' afternoon in... thousand oaks??

Thousand Oaks is my California hometown. The first place I lived after moving here in 10th grade. The place I learned to drive a car. The place I got my first job. The place my parents still live.

Every spring, Thousand Oaks holds Conejo Valley Days. There's a chili cook-off. A 5k run. And lots of carnival rides that, as a teenager, equaled a majorly exciting weekend in boring T.O.

I haven't been to Conejo Valley Days in more than 25 years... until yesterday.

Last year, I learned after-the-fact that Chevy Metal, a cool '70s cover band led by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins (who lives nearby) had played "CVD"... and his Foo friend Dave Grohl showed up. So this year, when I saw Chevy Metal would be playing CVD again, I convinced my Foo Fan friend Lisa to join me in the hot afternoon sun to see Taylor and his Chevy-crew, and in hopes that history would repeat itself... 

Once the techs came out and started tuning guitars, I knew it would. Dave Grohl plays very distinctive guitars, and I saw his gold Gibson being tuned. But he didn't come out right away. So then I started watching the guitars Chevy Metal's other guitarist was playing as the set went on. They played some Motley Crue, Billy Squire, Queen, Van Halen and AC/DC. (Full setlist is here.)  But the guitarist never played a gold Gibson. 

Then about 40-45 minutes into the set, Taylor started calling, "Dave. Dave. DAVE!!" And out came Dave Grohl.... with his gold Gibson guitar. Apparently he was late, and Taylor blamed him for having to switch the entire set list around. Dave said he was off winning goldfish and puking on the tilt-a-whirl. :)

They ended up playing three more covers from the Rolling Stones, Faces and then ended with David Bowie's "Under Pressure" which I love. Taylor, Dave and Chevy Metal bassist Wiley Hodgden trading vocals. Enjoy... 

(And sorry about the feedback noise. I don't know if that's because of the wind, how I was holding my phone, the fact I was situated in between Wiley's amps and two giant speakers on the side of the stage, or a combo of all three. Just don't turn this up too loud. You've been warned.) 

foos in the afternoon

Okay, first things first. I am not a biker. I do not ride motorcycles.. never have, never will. 

However, I AM a huge Foo Fighters fan. So when it was announced that the Foos would be performing at the finale of the 32nd Annual Love Ride event at Castaic Lake -- a mere 30 minutes from my house -- there was no way I was not going to go see them and my favorite baby blue Gibson guitar on the planet. (Especially since riding a Harley there was not required for entry.)

So early this morning -- in order to beat the caravan of motorcycles cruising up the 5 North -- I headed for Castaic, and then waited and waited and listened to opening act Social Distortion and then waited some more before Dave Grohl -- still on crutches -- along with Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel took the tiny stage in front of the lake and start rockin' out.... Taylor on a pink Andy Gibb-adorned drum kit, and Dave on a motorcycle-modified throne. (I love these guys!)

Since this was a special event, the band played around with their (shorter) set list, opening with "Learn to Fly" and "The Pretender."

Then they got into a pattern of a Foos song, a cover song, a Foos song, a cover song. The covers included Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down," David Bowie's "Under Pressure," and Tom Petty's "Breakdown"... enjoy a #snippet ((c) Dave Grohl, September 21, 2015) here:

Dave was his normal chatty self, still dropping f-bombs here and there, even with his 6-year-old daughter "Harps" dancing around on the side of the stage, with giant lime green headphones on. (He also informed the crowd he would be paying her in lots of jellybeans later for all the bad words he'd said.) Towards the end of the show, he also hilariously spotted a guy out "by that tree," dancing up a storm, doing the "sprinkler" and "running man." So, Dave Grohl being Dave Grohl, he pretty much stopped the show to call attention to him.... and then started calling out wacky dance-move requests.

While it was a shorter set than the Foos' normal 3-hours of awesomeness, and it was really hot when the sun wasn't behind a cloud, (and the bikers will complain that the event ran out of beer..whatevs), it was a super fun show! And best of all, it was for a great cause... all proceeds from the Love Ride go to the Wounded Warrior Project. Feel free to click that link and make a donation if you are so inclined :)

More Foo Fighters Fun:

• A night of foos, thrones, legends and the demise of my favorite baby blue gibson guitar
• My You Tube Foo Fighters concert playlist

a night of foos, thrones, legends and the demise of my favorite baby blue gibson guitar

In November 2014, on a Saturday morning, I drove to Inglewood, CA to stand in the parking lot of my least favorite concert venue in LA (aka The Forum) with about 4,000 other Foo Fighters fans, all putting on numbered bracelets and waiting and hoping for their lucky number to be called. Once that lucky number was chosen (by a cute red-headed four-year-old), everyone lined up in bracelet order to purchase #beatthebots tickets at the box office. I ended up approximately 200 people behind lucky person #1. :)

Ten months later, I -- with my gal pals Christina, Lisa and Niki -- finally got to use those tickets. For a while in June, I was scared we wouldn't (#brokenlegtour2015). But in the end, it was worth every second of the 304 days of waiting and hoping and waiting.... and waiting ...

If you've ever seen Foo Fighters live, you already know why it was worth the wait, and should just skip down to watch the awesome videos I've posted below.

If you haven't, what the heck have you been doing on your musical adventure through life?

The Foos are one of the best live rock bands you will ever see/hear. And I'd say that even if I didn't love Dave Grohl, who is -- without a doubt -- the coolest guy in rock-n-roll. 

Dave, btw, also happens to play the most beautiful baby blue Gibson guitar you'll ever see/hear. I first fell in love with that guitar in June of 2007, when I first saw Foo Fighters live, opening for a little band called The Police. Ask me what I remember of that Police concert today and I'll say, Dave Grohl running around, jumping on top of speakers ... and wailing on that beautiful blue guitar before The Police came out. I'm more than a little obsessed with the guitar... so much so that when surprise guest Dave showed up six feet away from me at a Rick Springfield concert at The Canyon in Agoura in September 2013 to do a song with Rick, my comment on my YouTube video was, "So friggin' awesome! (even though Dave didn't have his gorgeous baby blue guitar ;)." But I digress....

Last night, Dave played that beautiful blue guitar, while perched atop his broken-leg-protecting, rock-star throne, until almost the end of the night (more on that later). And from the opening chords of "All My Life," he, drummer Taylor Hawkins, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shifflet and bass guitarist Nate Mendel where "on." They sounded amazing, performing all the Foo hits you'd want plus three of the eight songs from the awesome newish Sonic Highways album. The production (video backdrop, lighting, rolling rock star throne) were really cool. And there were surprise guests... including one rock-n-roll legend, who reduced cool dude Dave Grohl to a backup singer ;)

The show opener:

When he snapped his leg in half in Sweden at the end of June, I was really scared I'd be getting a refund on these concert tickets. Thank the rock gods for pain-killer-induced dreams of rocker thrones, and (as Dave said) a tour production crew cool enough to pull it off!
(Please also note the image of John Travolta from "Stayin' Alive" on Taylor's drum kit. LOL) 

Camera phone flashlights and twinkle lights in the sky.

Special Guest #1 Jack Black jumped out on stage and sang two verses of the band's "#snippet" of Rush's "Tom Sawyer," climbing off the end of the ramp in the middle, but not breaking his leg... cuz he's not as cool as Dave Grohl.

This is called "A Grohl on His Throne"

Performing "Outside" -- the LA-inspired song from Sonic Highways

Towards the end of the show, Dave introduced special guests #2-4, Haim (a band of musical sisters), and after cutely bantering back and forth about Dave's three daughters and Haim offering to babysit, they started to perform a cover of the Tom Petty/Stevie Nicks duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around." Well, what's the point of that song without Stevie Nicks on vocals... ahhh! Witness the awesomeness of special guest #5...

Then Dave refused to leave without the jam band doing this song... (excuse the shaky camera towards the middle... I was multi-tasking. It was a long song ;)

After the rocker chicks left, the Foos went back to Foos tunes. Towards the end of either "These Days" or "This is a Call," Mr. Grohl got a little too excited with his guitar playing, and I learned one of my favorite bands runs just like the teams in my favorite sport. 

The first thing I noticed was a guitar-less Pat Smear rushing off stage for a new guitar. Apparently, being in the Foos is like being on a hockey team.. when your most important player (ie: the goalie ... or an incapacitated Dave Grohl) breaks his stick (or the neck of his beautiful baby blue Gibson guitar...sniff sniff), the closest player (like a defensemen... or Pat Smear) quickly tosses said important player his guitar to play so the show can go on. Then Dave Grohl proceeded to tell the crowd his signature guitars must be pretty cheap and you shouldn't buy one now. Um, hello! They're still pretty to look at!

The band didn't waste time going off stage and coming back for an encore, because per Dave, that's a waste of time that should be spent playing more music. (Note: Dave also can't climb off and on that throne very easily ;) But when it was finally time for the last tune, Dave said, "We won't say goodbye, we'll just say this...." 

Enjoy!