Last weekend we had another “Dave” experience. We went to Vancouver, BC to see Dave Grohl lead the Foo Fighters in their west coast visit at BC Place Stadium.

We went up on Saturday 9/19 with a quick stop in Seattle for lunch at one of our favorite Emerald City spots, Serious Pie. We actually saw Tom Douglas, restraurateur and owner, as we walked in. Then we hit the road to Canada. Going through the border checkpoint took about two minutes. I’ve never had an issue going to Canada and I only bring this up to compare to the return trip.

We stayed at the Hilton Metrotown. After checking in, we walked around the neighborhood and the MASSIVE Metropolis at Metrotown Mall.

Sunday we took the Hop On Hop Off tour from the waterfront after checking out the famous steam clock and walking through Chinatown. Then, it was a quick stop at the hotel to rest up and off for showtime. We had to hurry because we got caught by surprise when we looked at the tickets and realized the show started at 5:30. The Vancouver area has great public transportation so getting to the venue was a breeze.

The opening act was a noise punk band called Gouge Away. Good music, screamer of a female vocalist. Little offputting between songs when she spoke in an obvious affectation of a babydoll voice.

Second act was one of my favorite bands, Queens of the Stone Age. Josh Homme took several breaks to talk to the crowd and tried valiantly to get them to sing along, but it was a waek effort from the audience.

Finally, the Foo Fighters hit the stage. Heather and I have discussed several times that if nothing else, Dave Grohl is the epitome of a rock star. He rans the stage and plays the audience and gets everyone involved. He pointed out, much to my consternation, that the Foos have now been around for more than THIRTY years. He pulled out a lot of the old hits and kept the newer stuff to a minimum. He told a couple stories about the early days when he was “in a band with a guy named Kurt.” They had a cool break midway through the show when they all came out onto the platform and played some acoustic versions of their songs. Another interesting moment in the night was during the band intros as they played a verse or so of different songs each band member was known for prior to the Foo Fighters. They also did a cool mesh of No Son of Mine and Ace of Spades by Motorhead.

During the show I did see one interesting thing in the audience. I generally wouldn’t point out someone else’s private moment, but there were three guys in front of us who demonstrated the rare non-toxic side of masculinity. One of them, for whatever reason had a very emotional response to Aurora, when the band dedicated it to the late Taylor Hawkings, I mean very emotional. His buddies didn’t make it hard on him or laugh. They both just put an arm around him and let him get it out. A lot of guys could learn a lesson from that trio.

I tried to get a t-shirt several times, but every merch table had an unbelievably long line every time I checked. When I finally had a chance to wait a reasonable time, all the good shirts were gone in my size. So, I picked a third tier shirt and paid way too much for it. Between the ticket cost and the price of food and merch, I don’t understand how kids can afford concerts these days. Maybe the $300 per seat cost is the 2020s equivalant to the $20 I spent back in my youth, but that’s hard to fathom. And I actually remember bitching about spending fifteen bucks on a Black Crows T back in 1993.

Dave and the band kept the tempo up until they closed out the night to a deafening applause.

Monday we were back on the road home. Our return trip over the border was not as quick. We went via Blaine as the highway signs said it was only a twenty minute wait. When we arrived, I didn’t even think it would be that long as there weren’t many cars. It was, however, much longer. From entering the line until we were finally let through was more than 45 minutes. I don’t know why. The border agent barely looked at us and asked only a perfunctory question. I guess it just seemed “Everlong.”

Final note about the trip. We stopped in Mt Vernon and a place called the Porterhouse Pub for lunch and spotted a Henry mural in real life. Very cool!