9:30 Club Concerts featured

Foo Fighters @ 9:30 Club

Posted on May 12, 2014
The Foo Fighters performs at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and Nate Mendel of the Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

Wow. What can you say about a gig like this other than I was very glad to be in the room for this show. This was actually the second time that the Foos had played the 9:30 Club since I moved to D.C. in the early aughts. I wash;t in the building the last time they played so i can’t compare the two gigs but I can say with certainty that this was one of the 10 best, if not 5 best shows I have ever seen at the 9:30 Club. We basically got a stadium rock show for 1200 or so people.

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Dave Grohl and Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and Nate Mendel of the Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters performs at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. Grohl hosted the event, played drums with during a set with members of Scream and Bad Brains as well as performing a full set with the Foo Fighters. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

Dave was very chatty throughout the night, and yes, he did the climb on top of the bar, take a shot of Jaeger and do a big, rock star guitar solo while standing on the bar thing that he did the last time they played the 9:30, but it was still pretty damn cool. Also, Pat Smear is my spirit animal.

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Pat Smear of the Foo Fighters performs at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters performs at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. Grohl hosted the event, played drums with during a set with members of Scream and Bad Brains as well as performing a full set with the Foo Fighters. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - The Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/Photo by Kyle Gustafson)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - The Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/Photo by Kyle Gustafson)

SHOOTING NOTES: Sadly lights for this gig weren’t the best, which is such a shame. Dave came to the front of the stage numerous times during the first three songs but he just wasn’t lit very well up there and I ended up with blurry, dark masses in my frames where he should have been. There was an incredible amount of hair-whipping going on, so I was happy to get a few decent shots of that. The band was filing the gig for possible future release, so we had to fight with three video camera operators in the pit. They took up a ton of space and weren’t very mobile (or accommodating), so that was a bit of a drag.

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - The Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - The Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/Photo by Kyle Gustafson)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 5th, 2014 - Nate Mendel and Pat Smear of the Foo Fighters perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. as part of the birthday celebration for Big Tony of Trouble Funk. The band performed as surprise guests and played a set full of hits such as "My Hero" and "These Days." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

MORE PHOTOS: Check out the photo gallery to see more photos. Check my photo archive to see other shows I’ve shot.
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Kyle Gustafson is a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C. His work appears weekly in The Washington Post. Complex Magazine named him one of the 50 Greatest Concert Photographers Right Now.

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