It’s Friday! Favorite day of the week!…..Pulse of Radio reports this morning on the Foo Fighters! They played a three-and-a-half hour set — believed to be the band’s longest ever — at the Fillmore in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday night (Sep 5th) as part of the festivities surrounding the Democratic National Convention. The 35-song show for 1,000 fans was part of a Rock The Vote campaign to get young people to register and vote in this November’s election. Dave Grohl joked at one point in the show that the Fillmore was “the biggest place we’ve played in quite a while.” (Um, I guess he meant in a club, since they’ve done a bunch of festivals and what not this summer.) The show, which featured an encore of 15 songs, spanned hits like “All My Life,” “The Pretender,” This Is A Call” and “My Hero,” along with covers like Tom Petty‘s “Breakdown” and Pink Floyd‘s “In The Flesh?”. Commenting on the length of the show, Grohl told the audience, “Tonight we play as long as we want and as much as we want. It’s an open bar right?” The band was also scheduled to perform at the convention itself on Thursday (Sep 6th), which was moved from the outdoor Bank of America Stadium to the smaller indoor Time Warner Cable Arena due to the possibility of heavy thunderstorms in the area, which ultimately was too bad since the storms missed Charlotte! Damn weather predictors! Can’t they get things straight anymore???…Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt revealed to MTV News a bad case of the flu sent frontman Billie Joe Armstrong to the hospital and forced the band to cancel a show last weekend in Bologna, Italy. Dirnt explained, “Billie came down with heavy, heavy dehydration; it was like severe dehydration, influenza, and it was just a really, really bad situation. He woke up in the morning and it was bad. Let’s put it this way, if you’re in your hotel room and you’re vomiting profusely, it’s not fun . . . it’s hard to sing while you’re puking.” In other news, Green Day will play at New York City’s Irving Plaza on September 15th to promote the launch of Nokia Music, a new music streaming service. Damn, I will be in Chicago for the second night of the Triple Threat Tour with Seether, Sick Puppies, Kyng and Young Guns! Kind of a United Nations of tours! Bands from South Africa, Australia, US and England. And HELLO to all our UK and overseas visitors who stop by daily! We appreciate your interest in hardDriveRadio!….And this just goes to show you those Cleansing Diet drinks aren’t so good for you and you should always consult a doctor before using them! Eddie Van Halen was using them (a mixture of water, lemon juice, cayenne powder and maple syrup) and it caused his intestines to explode! Yes, you read correctly, and he had to have part of his intestines removed. I suffer from something similar and when you feel that pain, you think you are gonna die! Thank goodness he came out of it ok, but it was touch and go for a bit. Can’t imagine Eddie leaving the planet just yet!…..Bullet For My Valentine frontman Matt Tuck‘s side project, Axewound, has set an Oct 2nd release date for its debut album, Vultures. The project also features members of indie metal acts Cancer Bats, Pitchshifter, Glamour Of The Kill and Rise To Remain. Tuck steps away from the mic in this group and only plays guitar. Bullet For My Valentine itself is putting the finishing touches on its fourth album, which is expected out in early 2013. I liked Pitchshifter and wondered whatever happened to them actually….Happy 38th on Sunday to Marcos Curiel of P.O.D.! Have a great weekend, all!
