Foo Fighters Sonic Highways: Chicago

There has been a lot of buzz, talk and anticipation for Foo Fighter’s new series – Sonic Highways on HBO. Friday night was episode one that featured Chicago as the first stop. For those of you that don’t know about this series, the concept is pretty cool. Basically, the Foo Fighters recorded their album in multiple cities, while in those cities they’ve created an exercise to really understand AND appreciate the history and develop the lyrics based on those experiences. On top of that they’ve invited a figurehead musician from that area to record on the track.

This concept is cool, but I really like Dave Grohl‘s honest appreciation to his own musical crossroads and how those have shaped his career. As I mentioned, the first episode was Chicago. To me, I have a great appreciation of Chicago. By far.. my favorite *music* city. Many of the bands I like hail from there (Shellac/Big Black, Silkworm/Bottomless Pit, Russian Circles, Seam, The Jesus Lizard, etc, etc), so I was really excited about it. Why Dave chose Chicago.. because he visited a cousin as a child, and that cousin was a punker and took Dave to a Naked Raygun show at the Cubbie Bear bar. At that moment, his mind was blown. Taking the experience back to Washington DC and began to explore the world of DIY punk shows, which obviously led him to where he is at today. Additionally, he wanted to record with Steve Albini (owner of Electrical Audio) who happened to be the engineer of Nirvana’s In Utero.

Here is the preview of the Chicago episode:

I can relate with these crossroads in my personal experience. Maybe you too? I can think of being in high school and handed a tape or disc of a band I never heard of.. and from that point on, changed the direction of my musical tastes. I can remember those milestones quite clearly. Or maybe the moment where you first held a guitar, etc.

Did you catch this episode? What did you think? Let me know by commenting below!