Oxegen bound headliners Foo Fighters are all set for a busy summer with the release of their latest album ‘Wasting Light’. James Moll put together a documentary on them and Greg Synnott went along to check it out.
Foo Fighters – Back and Forth
Director: James Moll
Released April 7th 2011
“These are my famous last words”
Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear and that guy who used to drum for Nirvana. That’s right: everyone’s favourite fun loving rock stars, the Foo Fighters (“the worst fucking band name in the world” apparently) have hit the big screen.
But this isn’t some Bieber-esque puff-piece made for the simple promotional purpose of their latest album. No, this is something much bigger than that, this is much darker. Brutal, honest and at times an intensely, intrusive look at the bands history, ‘Back and Forth’ pulls back the curtain and doesn’t shy away from the lowest points of the bands history; choosing instead to open old wounds one by one on camera.
Interviewing all the band mates – past and present – we learn that there really is a side of the Foo Fighters that no one really expected, particularly that the commonly tagged “nicest man in rock” Dave Grohl has a dark side; going so far as to completely re-record an entire albums drum tracks without their former drummers knowledge, and then telling him post production.
Back and Forth is genuinely enlightening and the perfect example of what happens when you do a Rock-doc properly, giving points to the argument that you don’t have to put a band in 3D to make them interesting on the big screen.
Following the movie was a live screening of the band playing their forthcoming album Wasting Light, in its entirety: no edits, no splits, and no breaks – completely as live. And this is where I was let down.
This exclusive live stream recorded just two before the screening and would have worked brilliantly had it not been for the cinemas lacking sound system, and annoying inability to turn it up, to a volume suitable to listen to a Foo Fighter’s record. Rather than being spectacular, it was awkward and sad, including the irritating shh-ing from audience members who didn’t seem to comprehend, this was no longer a movie but a live experience not unlike a concert.
Despite this set back, Wasting Light is set to be a hit, and proves that even after six albums, the Foo Fighters are still as relevant as when they released The Colour and the Shape in 97. It’s a pity that this was once in a lifetime screening as I think this kind of documentary deserves a longer running on the large screen, even if you’re not a Foo Fighters fan, it is an interesting insight into the growth of a band after nearly twenty years.