Foo Fighters - Skin and Bones

Get ready to be blown away by this semi acoustic GEM!

I've always been a fan of the Foo Fighters. Sure, they are loud, most of the time that is. But hey, who in rock and roll can top Dave Grohl's marvelous sense of humor? Whenever I take a plane I think of the Foo's Learn To Fly video and start laughing as the crew prepares their usual take off procedures.
Everybody knows Dave Grohl as having been Nirvana's drummer. So it is to no surprise that people compare this semi acoustic live album to Nirvana's terrific Unplugged in New York.
But Dave isn't Curt - he doesn't want to be, doesn't need to. He's an amazing songwriter in his own right and the Foo Fighters are a terrific band.
In Your Honor, the album they brought out one year previous to this one, already had one disc with just acoustic songs. They were a truly amazing set of songs.
Here they play songs from all their previous albums showing that great songs can be played in a lot of different ways. They will forever be great songs.
But don't think of this as stripped down. It's perfect the way it is. Nothing is missing. It's just another take. That's what I expect when I go to a concert, to be surprised; not another album played live with every note as I already know it.
This set has 15 songs recorded in August 2006 live at Pantages Theater, Hollywood. A perfect recording with great mastering by ... Bob Ludwig (who else)
My favorites: Razor, Over and Out and Cold Day in the Sun
Apart from Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett, you'll find Petra Haden on violin, mandolin and vocals, Drew Hester, percussion and vibes, Rami Jaffee, piano, mellotron, accordion and organ, Pat Smear, acoustic and electrical guitar, Danny Clinch, harmonica. June 29, 2008

Some excellent material.

A great band, an excellent idea, just barely missed the perfect mark, because of few covers, and lackluster playability on popular singles. June 8, 2008

Good, but could have been better.

This is a good live, acoustic album but it could have been better. I always think that Nirvana's "Live in New York" is the standard-bearer for these types of albums and this doesn't come close. That being said this is still an enjoyable album full of good music. I would've liked to have heard it possible in a more intimate venue and stripped-down even more. April 5, 2008

Disappointing

I say "disappointing" but that's really unfair because I'm a hard-core Foo Fighters fan. There is very little in this CD that makes me want to go back and listen to it day in and day out (as I did with One by One and the Color and the Shape). In short, pass unless you want to round out your collection. March 26, 2008

1 thing to do before you die: go to a foo fighters concert

fter the blow-me-down-with-a-feather surprise appeal of the acoustic half of Foo Fighters' midlife-crisis double album In Your Honor, Norah Jones duet `n all, a live-acoustic victory lap was probably inevitable. It's not a terrible idea: when the eight-piece configuration hits its stride, Skin and Bones approximates the Springsteen-ization of the Foos shiny, toothy sound, adding some satisfying clout to the acoustic numbers. But like a sixteeen-year-old's hard-on, Grohl's songs haven't the finesse nor the staying power for the intimate treatment.

Skin and Bones is no MTV Unplugged. Grohl has something else in mind--warmer and more triumphal. Trouble is, unlike Nirvana, Grohl's songs are good but seldom great. Under a conventional acoustic arrangement, "My Hero" turns, as the song suggests, quite ordinary, even ponderous in places, something never true of the original; the song's lyrical muscle atrophies from too much gravity, or possibly too little.

About halfway through Skin and Bones, it's uncomfortably obvious how much of Grohl's considerable charisma is invested in his throttled howl and armored sound. In traditional registers, his rather bland voice and blander phrasing on "February Stars" sound like a second-rate folkie. "Next Year" has the cheerful sheen of a twelve-string and mandolin strummed in unison, but still meanders rather fruitlessly. "Big Me" contrives to be loungey without the unexpected class of "Virginia Moon." Thing is, when you strip these songs to skin and bones, there's not always a whole lot left; the secret of a good Foos song lies in the texture, as bristly and satisfying as a two-day-old beard.

Somewhat surprisingly then, the best of these performances are the sparest. The title track begins with Grohl strumming a fragile minor-key pattern and adds organ and percussive mass. Even better is Grohl's solo take on "The Best of You," prefaced by an acknowledgement that a Foo Fighters show that omits Grohl's shredding isn't worth the price of admission. As Grohl blasts through the blustery song and its insistent one-note chorus, you can hear those magnificent sinews in his neck stretching. His growl bleeds all over the acoustic strumming and simple lyrics, until he dissolves in a Howard Dean-worthy screech. The acoustic experiment was fun, but the sooner the Fighters get back to combating Foo with their full arsenal, the better.
February 20, 2008

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