Fans reveal reason for affection for Foo Fighters

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy,com

weathersfield

Dave Karr of Cortland was only 18 when he first became a fan of Nirvana and its Warren-born drummer, Dave Grohl.

Karr, born in Trumbull Memorial Hospital the same year as Grohl, saw Nirvana play in bars in Seattle before they “got big.” Karr was stationed there in the military at the time.

He knew about Grohl’s connection to Trumbull County early on, continued to follow Grohl’s career with the Foo Fighters and remains a Foo fan 20 years later.

The local connection is important to Karr, but the way Grohl and the rest of the band treat fans also is huge, Karr said.

“I think nobody’s better to their fans than Dave and the Foo Fighters,” he said. The decision to play a show in a small storefront in the Pine Tree shopping center in front of 150 people is an example, he said.

“They showed up with trays and trays of food,” Karr said of people connected with the band who took care of the people in line overnight, waiting for their chance to get a ticket Thursday morning to the noon Saturday show. Some people waited more than 24 hours for their chance.

The only cost to the 150 people attending is the $25 they had to pay for the Foo Fighters’ new album, “Songs from the Laundry Room.”

Today, Karr is a big supporter of Dave Grohl Alley in Warren, attending shows there and even producing a piece of artwork that is regularly displayed on the stage.

Joe O’Grady, a retired Warren police officer who helped make people aware of Grohl’s Warren connections when he started the alley in 2009, said the Foo Fighters show is another example of Grohl’s respect for the place where his parents lived, met and started a family. Grohl attended the unveiling of the alley in 2009 and played several songs on Courthouse Square.

Jeff Burke, owner of the Record Connection music store in the plaza, where the tickets were sold, said he knew two months ago about the show but had to keep it secret.

Burke said he thinks his store was selected because it has been doing the “grunt work” of promoting shows and selling music for 32 years at the same location. It’s also just a few miles from Grohl’s grandparents’ house near Stevens Park in Niles, where he visited many times while growing up in the Washington, D.C., area.

Lauren Rogers, 24, of Willoughby is a big Foo Fighters fan, having been influenced by her parents’ love for Nirvana. She has two Foo Fighters-inspired tattoos on her leg — one similar to the album cover from “The Colour and the Shape.”

She became a fan at 12 because Grohl is “the beast on the drums, and that influenced my playing style. I also started playing guitar because of the Foo Fighters” because Grohl is known for playing many instruments.

Caleb Hall, 20, of Niles said he’s liked the Foo Fighters since he was in eighth or ninth grade when he came to see the “sympathy and understanding” in their music and lyrics.

“There’s hooks in music that express in ways that words can’t,” he said, adding that he and two friends started playing Foo Fighters and Nirvana songs almost exclusively when he was in high school.

Andrew Hayes, 37, of Canton, a technology consultant, said he’s worked in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and has visited the places where Nirvana and Grohl played in both cities.

Hayes said Foo Fighters and Nirvana songs have picked him up at various points in his life.

“When I think about all the big moments in my life, the soundtrack leading up to all of that is Foo Fighters.”

Weathersfield Police Chief Mike Naples said Burke has made arrangements for off-duty police officers and about 10 security guards to handle crowd control at the plaza, which is in Weathersfield Township.

Officers with his department also will be in the area to help out if people other than the 150 ticket holders show up.