Image Credit: WireImage

Coming off his must-read SXSW keynote address earlier that day (he didn’t even change his shirt!), Dave Grohl took to the stage at Stubb’s in Austin to lead his Sound City Players supergroup in an impassioned and largely hard-rocking showcase Thursday night.

The ever-charismatic Foo Fighters frontman declared that this was the group’s final performance together and pledged an “extra long and extra special” night. Sound City is less a band than a showcase for artists who were part of Grohl’s recent documentary (now streaming online) on the famed Sound City recording studio in Van Nuys, where famed artists recorded some of their best-known albums (Nirvana’s Nevermind, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush among them).

The Players were never meant to be a permanent thing, of course; they were put together to play a handful of show to support the venture and its soundtrack (Sound City: Reel to Reel), with Grohl serving as ringleader for the shows and heaping praise upon each of his rock idols (who then gamely return the favor — Masters of Reality’s Chris Goss called him a “national treasure”).

The Citi-sponsored three-hour-plus set featured Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield and others from the project taking turns at the lead microphone for roughly five songs each (no Paul McCartney, drat). Grohl repeatedly noted how fortunate the crowd to see all these artists together on one stage, and it was tough to argue. READ FULL STORY »