Dave Grohl names the best live band he ever saw: “The most powerful noise you’ve ever heard”

There’s a good chance no one can truly appreciate the power of Dave Grohl until they see him play live. Whether he was behind the drumkit with Nirvana or one of the biggest rock and roll frontmen of the modern age with Foo Fighters, Grohl is known for giving it his all whenever he gets onstage, with the stamina of a man who seems to drink ten Red Bulls before performing. One would expect nothing less from an original punk, but Grohl thought that the most electrifying performances he ever saw came from Bad Brains.

Out of any subgenre of rock music, punk always seemed to be the one focused on delivering the greatest show possible. Even if you weren’t fluent in every single note the band played, it didn’t matter as long as you were able to lose your mind whenever they started performing, almost as if the universe would explode if they didn’t get to the end of the song.

Although Grohl was more than happy to share his love of bands like Ramones and The Clash, his childhood was dominated by the sounds of hardcore punk. The suburbs of Washington, D.C., had slowly evolved into a hotbed for the biggest names in hardcore music, with legends like Ian MacKaye laying the groundwork for the genre with Minor Threat.

Bad Brains had emerged from that scene, but they weren’t just ready to play; they were ready for war. The minute JR stood in front of a microphone, you knew that you were going to be getting the most explosive show you had ever heard, including instances where he seemed to be conducting the band throughout pieces of their performance.

Grohl may not have fully known what he was seeing, but he knew that he wasn’t going to see another show like it for as long as he lived, saying, “They were four black Rastafarians who made the most powerful noise you have ever heard in your life. They were legends, they had inspired and influenced everyone in the DC music scene and pretty much everyone in New York too”.

Compared to other artists who tried their best to make the fastest music you’ve ever heard in your life, Bad Brains was about more than just speed. This was about taking music as close to chaos as you could get without actually going too far over the line, and it didn’t take long for Grohl to incorporate that into his own songs.

Even though Foo Fighters seems a lot closer to radio-rock a lot of the time, some of their best songs include Grohl shrieking his lungs out just like his heroes did. No matter how many times he can write a Beatles-style rock song, no one is able to pull off a scream in the middle of ‘Monkey Wrench’ without putting themselves through their paces listening to JR first.

More than anything, Grohl’s ability to harness that energy when it came time to play is the least he could do to carry on Bad Brains’ mindset. After all, there might not be another chance to play music tomorrow, so you might as well make your time onstage count while you still can.