rocking the “Falls

Approximately half an hour before the doors of the Glens Falls Civic Center opened for the Foo Fighters concert on Oct. 9, it began to downpour, soaking hundreds of fans waiting to get in. But their spirits to see great music weren’t dampened at all.

“I came all the way from Williamsport Pennsylvania for this. I took two busses and I’m really pumped,” said Jestie Hestigan. “I hope soon everyone will start moving around and rocking out and it will get warm in here.”

They did and it did.

The Foo Fighters for the next couple hours rocked the Civic Center an hour from the Castleton State College campus, putting on a terrific performance that disappointed no one.

Originally from Seattle, the band was formed in 1995 by Dave Grohl, who was once the drummer of the 1990s grunge band, Nirvana.

Grohl pulled together Nate Mendel on bass guitar, Taylor Hawkins took his spot as drummer, and Chris Shiflett plays lead guitar.

The crowd was extremely diverse with several whole families coming out to see the show. There was no defined age group for this crowd, with some sporting Nirvana shirts and others dressed in outrageous as well as conservative apparel.

The show opened with their latest chart topper “The Pretender” followed by one of there old classics “Times Like These.”

Throughout the show, the band continued to bring back songs from there very first album while mixing in brand new tracks. The members were accompanied by four other musicians, bringing their sound to a level that Grohl claimed made a “super duper band.”

This pumped up band included an acoustic guitarist, a beautiful woman who mysteriously played electric violin and cello, an alternative percussionist who managed to move the audience with a triangle solo mid-way through the performance, and a keyboardist with his own grand piano — and accordion.

This mix of instruments and talent proved to make a moving performance with Grohl playing songs that most of the fans knew – but in a new and breathtaking way.

At one point in this performance, Grohl jumped from the stage, circled around the audience at a sprinting pace with his bodyguard and engaged in a battle of electric guitars with Chris Shiflett on opposite ends of the Civic Center.

Later on in the show after playful peer pressure, he also smashed one of his favorite guitars, only to have it replaced by an exact duplicate.

The show finished up after 19 songs, but an aggressive crowd pushed for an encore and was treated to one of their classic hits, “The Best of You”

“I am supremely satisfied. It was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while,” concertgoer Andy Grincavitch said.

Charlotte Breie apparently liked it even more.

“It was better then sex,” she said.

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