SOUND CITY PLAYERS!!!!

Well, I thought the film was absolutely brilliant, and the lineup on the soundtrack is incredible and I never thought I'd actually manage to get a ticket to see them, but last night I went to the Hammerstein Ballroom to see... THE SOUND CITY PLAYERS!!!!

(I nabbed this amazing photo from Brooklyn Vegan - hope they don't mind!)

Along with all the Foo Fighters, the line up was:
Alain Johannes. Chris Goss, Brad Wilk, Lee Ving, Rick Nielsen, Krist Novoselic, Rick Springfield, John Fogerty and Stevie Nicks!!!

As the gig started a big screen dropped down from the ceiling and the opening titles of the Sound City documentary played, followed by a little snippet of Alain Johannes (from Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures) talking about his experiences at the recording studio.

The screen then lifted to reveal the first band, more or less all the Foos with Alain playing guitar and singing. Then after a couple of songs they all changed round their instruments. After about 4 songs the screen came back down and showed another clip from the film and interviews with Chris Goss and Brad Wilk... and then again for Lee Ving, Rick Nielsen etc. etc...

Each person performing seemed to be so so grateful of Dave Grohl for doing the documentary and coming up with the idea of the concerts - every musician playing looked like they were having an amazing time, and everyone in the crowd was loving it just as much.

Each new lineup did about 4-5 songs, doing the best known songs from their respective bands as well as the new songs that they'd written with the Foo Fighters for the Sound City soundtrack. It was great to hear stuff that I'd never heard of, by bands I'd never heard of, like Chris Goss or Lee Ving, as well as hearing songs that I knew but didn't know who had sung them - like Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick.

When Rick Nielsen was on, Taylor (Foos drummer) sung all the Cheap Trick songs as their normal singer couldn't be there... the songs sounded amazing and I didn't realise how many Cheap Trick songs I actually knew... the big one was 'I Want You to Want Me' (you'd know it if you heard it).

As the night went on, the names got bigger - Rick Springfield got a very good reception, although I always thought he was a bit of a one-hit-wonder with Jessie's Girl... but people were loving him and he seemed to be having a great time.

Then it was time for my favourite of the night... a bit of Creedence with John Fogerty!!! I was wondering if he'd play much Creedence stuff, but he played all the biggies, Born on the Bayou, Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Traveling Band and this brilliant version of Fortunate Son...

(My videos didn't come out very well, and I was pretty far back on the balcony, so I hope that TheEFinley doesn't mind me borrowing their brilliant video from the gig?!)

Mr Fogerty was having a whale of a time playing with the Foos - he sounded great too!

The big finale to the night was Stevie Nicks with Foo Fighters being her band for the evening. They played Sto[ Draggin' My Heart Around, Dreams, Landslide and finished the whole gig with (a long version of) Gold Dust Woman.

I think the highlight of the night was John Fogerty and Rick Niesen, but the whole night was absolutely amazing. It was such a great lineup of musicians and such a brilliant concept for a gig. Having the night punctuated with clips from the film was great and seeing the Foos playing completely different style songs (even with backing singers at one point!) was brilliant too.

I've been so so lucky with the gigs I've got to go to since being in New York, and especially with the Foo Fighters gigs, seeing them play at the Ed Sullivan theatre, in Central Park, in Madison Square Garden and now with rock and roll legends... it's amazing.

I wonder where I'll be when I see them play for the 20th time?!?