Hello friends!

I’m all done with my test! Did I pass it?  Meh. Probably not.  But that’s ok.  At least it’s over with and I can focus on some exciting things – like my wedding in five months! You know what else is going to be in a little over five months?

FOO FIGHTERS.

I’ve so far kept pretty quiet about my Dave Grohl fandom on this blog, but I’m so pumped about seeing them live again that IT IS TIME.

I’ve always liked Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, but it wasn’t until my brother and I saw them at ACL in 2008 that I became a huge fan.  To this day, that show is still the best I’ve ever seen (and living in Austin, I’ve seen a lot of great shows!)  My brother and I camped in the same spot for seven or eight hours, so we were essentially the fourth or fifth row.  They opened up with “All My Life”  and that was pretty much it.  I was sold.  Fan for life.  A year later, my brother and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to a Them Crooked Vultures show over at Stubb’s.  Seeing Dave Grohl drumming live was so impactful that I decided to learn how play drums.

In 2011, the Foos came back to Austin for SXSW.  Their documentary, Back and Forth, was premiering at the festival, and yet again, my brother and I were so lucky to get tickets.  Watching the movie in the theater, looking to my left, and seeing Dave Grohl watching the documentary and munching on popcorn was surreal.  Afterward, we made our way over to Stubb’s.  We weren’t able to get tickets for their show there, but we were able to hear it from a parking garage across the street, and we danced as if we were in the front row.  Then a day or two later, we stood in line for four or five hours to get admission to the MTV Woodie Awards (which I was miraculously able to get tickets to).  It was a long time to wait in line to watch them perform just one song, but it was worth it.  We were also very close to the stage for that set.

In November of that year, I flew to Philly to visit my relatives and to catch the Foos’ show as part of their Wasting Light tour.  Wasting Light is one of my top favorite albums, and to this day, “Bridge Burning” is my go-to motivational song.  I had a blast seeing the show with my cousins, but my brother, who was in his final semester in college, hadn’t been able to go with me.  I felt guilty seeing the Foos without him there, and vowed after that not to go to another Foos show without him.

In 2015, Fiancé (then Boyfriend), my brother, and I flew to Boston to catch the Foos as part of their Sonic Highways tour at Fenway Park.  I think the Fenway show is my second favorite Foos show.  We topped off 2015 with seeing them one more time at ACL.

When tickets for their Concrete and Gold tour went on sale today, I didn’t think I would purchase the tickets.  The Austin show is 13 days after my wedding and we haven’t even planned the honeymoon. I wasn’t sure what my brother was going to do either. So I didn’t buy the tickets.  But as the day went on, I found myself feeling wistful about seeing them.  At dinner, I checked ticket availability and was depressed to learn that all the Austin tickets had sold out.

I sent a text to my brother.  If I bought tickets off of Stubhub, would he be down for seeing them?  He responded yes, so I excitedly purchased tickets for the three of us.  Then my mom texted saying she wanted to join too, so AHHHH! It’s going to be so much fun! My mom hasn’t seen them live before, so I’m so excited for her to have this experience.

I know this is a lot of yammering about the Foos, but this band means a lot to me – not only because of the awesome memories I have with my brother seeing all these shows together (watching them perform “One of These Days” at Fenway is probably one of my top favorite brother/sister moments), but because their music got me through some unhappy times in my 20s.  Their music has also been so motivating for me – I run to their albums all the time, and their discography got me through two marathons.  Dave Grohl’s musicianship was so inspiring to me and becoming a fan of their music really forced me out of my shell in so many ways that it would take another long and rambling blog post to explain.  Simply put – I love this band and I am so excited to see them for the fifth time next April.