Foo Fighters - 'Skin and Bones'

It must be nice to be a rock and/or roll elder statesman — just look at Dave Grohl. The man’s been rocking out for almost two decades with such seminal acts as Scream, Foo Fighters and, oh yeah, Nirvana. Having accrued so much alt-rock cred, Grohl has spent the last few years fulfilling any and all of his ambitions. He’s laid down tracks for other great acts like Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Cat Power, Tenacious D and even the thin white duke himself, David Bowie. After honoring his metal roots with Probot and further pursuing his ambitions with the half-electric/half-acoustic Foo Fighters double album In Your Honor, Grohl has expanded with the live acoustic album Skin and Bones.

At first, Skin and Bones comes off as the Foo Fighters’ equivalent of Nirvana’s phenominal and intimate work, Unplugged in New York, which isn’t a bad comparison. But it does overlook a lot of Skin and Bones’ qualities. Its track list is more predictable than Unplugged — it’s mostly Foo hits mixed with some of the already-acoustic material from the second half of In Your Honor. But the material comes from a totally different place now. You can expect to hear “Everlong” or “My Hero” at a Foo Fighters concert, but you’ll still be surprised by how different they are here.

Grohl has had to face Nirvana comparisons ever since the band’s demise in 1994, but now he deserves a different assessment. On Skin and Bones, Grohl delivers a bluegrass-esque performance in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen’s recent Devils and Dust and We Shall Overcome albums.

Track four, “Marigold,” will certainly please older Grohl fans. A B-side from the Nirvana “Heart-Shaped Box” single, “Marigold” benefits from the additions provided by Foo Fighters. It’s a bit livelier (no pun intended). Then the first hit comes — “My Hero.”

Grohl and his guitar start it off, but the full band peeks through during the first chorus, and then jumps out in full force for the second. It doesn’t hit as hard as the studio version, but the energy is still there. Extra props go to Rami Jaffee for his wonderful piano solo. Although his playing makes it even more obvious and easy to compare Skin and Bones to the Boss, Jaffee gives this live cut its own full identity.

Though the album’s ditties are all nice listens, it’s the last few tracks of Skin and Bones that will make a lasting impression. One by One hit “Times Like These” builds upon itself, rocking a little harder with each chorus, as if the band means it more and more. The players jam out an ethereal vibe. Even the triangle playing of percussionist Drew Hester is awesome.

“Friend of a Friend” repeats more of the same chilled out strumming, which by this point may lose a few listeners. But then, unleashing a fire that must have been building inside him during the rest of the set, Grohl shouts out the words to “Best of You” like Springsteen did on “Born in the U.S.A.” — with all his heart. A testament to his ability as a musician, “Best of You” still seethes with power even when it’s just Grohl and his guitar. Closing out the album is Foo Fighters’ best song (no contest), “Everlong.”

Starting off with a whisper, “Everlong” is as mind blowing and gleefully chilling here as it is on The Colour and the Shape. With each verse, the crowd becomes more and more enthusiastic. Grohl starts off leading them, but it soon turns around. The audience urges him onward. When the rest of the band joins in halfway through, the whole thing turns to ecstasy.

While Skin and Bones is a must-have for Grohl acolytes, it might not do well with the average rock fan. Most of the album is much more subdued than, say, The Colour and the Shape or One by One, but that’s the fun of it. Skin and Bones showcases Grohl chasing his whimsy for about 73 minutes, and the results are beautiful.