Grohl and Foo Fighters Peek Out From Nirvana’s Shadow

Though the Foo Fighters put on a good performance Thursday at the Roxy, it was nearly impossible to just sit back and enjoy this band headed by Nirvana’s ex-drummer Dave Grohl.

No matter how well the quartet played during its hour set, you couldn’t help compare and contrast everything it did with Nirvana itself.

Are the Foo Fighters’ songs as good? Is Grohl’s singing as intense? Is the whole thing as emotional and gripping?

As unfair as it seems, that’s the reality of the Foo Fighters’ situation.

You can look at the whole thing as a curse and a blessing for Grohl, who has moved up front and assumed the leadership role of singer-guitarist.

On one hand, this band wouldn’t be getting near the massive media attention it has received without the Nirvana association.

On the other hand, it’s doubtful he will ever be able to live up to his old group--and that, in ways unreasonable and unfair, may dampen his own accomplishments.

The bottom line is Grohl has a hard road ahead of him, and his first steps--the album and show--offer signs of both optimism and concern.

Putting Nirvana aside, the Foo Fighters rank high on a normal rock scale--not as special as Smashing Pumpkins but better than three-quarters of the bands you’ll hear on KROQ this week. Its just-released debut album is a solid pop-based punk collection that stands on its own, musically speaking. Its songs are immediate and dynamic enough to lure a mass audience.

Grohl’s biggest challenge is telling us more about himself. He played an important, anonymous role in Nirvana. The personality and soul of the band seemed tied almost entirely to Kurt Cobain. For all his sonic strengths with the Foo Fighters, Grohl’s vocals and lyrics aren’t very revealing. So basically, the band--which also includes guitarist Pat Smear, who played with Nirvana toward the end--seems slightly undernourished.

Still, the capacity crowd was wildly enthusiastic at the hot and sweaty Roxy, where the temperature must have hit 150. The wilted audience appeared to be a mix of zealous fans who looked to the Foo Fighters like a worshiper does a shrine, and chatty music industry people who knew it was the hip place to be.

The Foo Fighters came out and blasted the audience with a wall of guitar assault.

“We’ve worked hard at working like professionals,” Grohl joked after the opening song, as the band fumbled with whatever the technical glitch of the moment was, and there were many to follow. The comment seemed to radiate irony, since the fight against professional rock stardom seemed the bane of Nirvana and Cobain’s existence.

Grohl, who has gone back from playing arenas to small clubs, seemed to revel in the intimacy and relative simplicity of his new situation. The more fans jumped on the stage and the more the band screwed up, the happier he seemed.

The show was obviously a cathartic experience for Grohl after all these years inside the fishbowl stardom of Nirvana--and that freedom translated into liberating songs.