Is it just me, or is Dave Grohl just rapidly turning into Neil Young?
And it’s not just that they’re really kinda starting to look eerily alike, either.
Granted, the longtime Foo Fighters frontman is probably a good 25 or so years younger than the infamous, squeaky-voiced folk-rocker, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from smashing willfully through the boundaries of relevancy and into that same weird, lonely, elder-statesman’s world -- a world where cultural and political ballyhooing, nagging responsibilities to a younger generation, and the pandering of fan-appeasing, self-caricaturing music (ahhhem) all become more important than innovating and writing kick-dick rock songs.
It is seemingly with this new attitude of unapologetic insufficiency that old-man Grohl and his cronies have announced that they will be hitting the road this coming January for a string of dates supporting the comfortably lukewarm Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, released this past fall on Roswell/RCA.
And, in another move befitting of the aging rock icon-turned-caretaker of his own legacy, Grohl and the Foos’ upcoming tour will feature guest stars aplenty in order to bloat the arrangements and make fans feel like they’re getting their money’s worth of that arena-sized ticket price, including Pat Smear on guitar, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, and Jessie Greene on strings. (Hey, SOMEONE’s got to help the Foos out with all of their Arcade Fire covers and shit.)
But what elder-statesman’s tour would be complete without the classic “never mind my music, support this charity” tag attached? And god bless him; Grohl and co. have actually found a darned worthy one. See, for fans who want to ensure themselves good seats and support a good cause at the same time, a limited quantity of premium tickets for a number of shows will be auctioned off through Ticketmaster, the proceeds from which will benefit local urban tree planting through TreeBank, an online donation system dedicated to urban forest tree planting. Each auction will run for approximately two weeks following each show's on-sale date, and TreeBank will distribute auction proceeds to local "branches" (ha, get it?) for tree planting in every community on the Foo Fighters tour. You can find more information about the program here and here, but not here.
My, my, hey, hey. See you in Saskatoon:
