Despite the title, the Foo Fighters have actually fleshed out for this live album. Recorded last August over three sold-out nights in Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, Skin And Bones is a superb snapshot of the band’s first ever tour with its expanded eight piece line-up.
The usual Fighters – Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris ‘Don’t Say It When You’re Drunk’ Shiflett – are lined-up behind front-Foo Dave Grohl. But they’re not alone. Guitarist Pat Smear has temporarily returned to the fold, aided and augmented by Petra Haden (violin), Rami Jaffee (keyboards) and Drew Hester (percussion).
A noisy shower of bastards at the best of times, you’d expect all these additional players to cause the volume to hit the fabled ‘11’. But, the occasional freak-out aside, these performances are mostly all stripped back, mellowed out and laid lyrically bare.
Having said that, Dave Grohl occasionally sings like Al Pacino acts, and starts chewing the mic (most notably on a hollered ‘Best Of You’). With audience cheers and applause scattered throughout, it’s all fairly reminiscent of Nirvana’s 1994 MTV Unplugged performance – though, needless to say, not quite so good.
Trainspotters will already know that the excellent title song was originally a B-side on their 2005 single ‘DOA’, but the 15 tracks here catalogue some of the more memorable moments of the band’s career to date (though the bulk of the set list is culled from the more acoustic side of In Your Honour). The classic ‘One By One’ is sadly absent, but there are fabulous live interpretations of ‘Times Like These’, ‘Over & Out’ and ‘Cold Day In The Sun’.
This one’s a real no-brainer for diehard, or even fair-weather, Foo Fighters fans. However, stripped of the usual noisy anthemic riffs and sounding like a fresh collection of songs, Skin And Bones could well win the interest of a whole new audience.