Nandi Bushell and Foo Fighters
August 28, 2021 5:04 AM   Subscribe

11 year-old drum prodigy Nandi Bushell plays Everlong live on stage with the Foo Fighters. Video from backstage. Previously.
posted by mokey (37 comments total) 44 users marked this as a favorite
 
Love everything about this.
posted by chris24 at 5:50 AM on August 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


I feel like this performance should have ended the pandemic.
posted by gwint at 5:52 AM on August 28, 2021 [23 favorites]


The best thing about that is that she didn't play along with Taylor, which is what I was expecting. She literally was THE drummer for the Foo Fighters.
posted by COD at 6:37 AM on August 28, 2021 [35 favorites]


The keeping a drumstick was so great.
posted by Meatbomb at 6:57 AM on August 28, 2021 [7 favorites]


That moment for her - standing there while the entire arena chant "Nandi! Nandi!"
posted by Webbster at 7:21 AM on August 28, 2021 [5 favorites]


It’s SO DUSTY in here
posted by sixswitch at 7:22 AM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


Loved every second of this. And her FACE! So much joy.
And keeping that drumstick at the end—damn right she’s keeping it!
posted by bookmammal at 7:25 AM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


Oh man yeah her asking if she could keep one was such a perfect ending.
posted by saladin at 7:40 AM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


And if you just can't get enough of this, here's a shot from the crowd, and much like that one shot from back stage where you can hear her dad whooping it up, hearing the different crowd reactions is kinda cool.
posted by straw at 7:58 AM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


Not long ago the Linda Lindas blew my mind. Today it's Nandi Bushell.

The kids are alright.
posted by tclark at 8:04 AM on August 28, 2021 [8 favorites]


Amazing.
posted by bluesky43 at 8:14 AM on August 28, 2021


This really captures what a Foo Fighters show is like live. Dave telling some story (some of which may be bs but you don't care cause they're good stories), the fans responding and bringing the energy, kickass musicians playing rock songs, then ending with being all around cool dudes.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:48 AM on August 28, 2021 [6 favorites]


Hey, who brought onions in here? I didn't ask for onions!

(Haven't been a Foo Fighters fan, but I guess now I have to be.)
posted by humbug at 8:54 AM on August 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING
posted by alex_skazat at 9:25 AM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


If you haven't watched the angle Straw posted you really should. It's better than the other two.
posted by chris24 at 9:34 AM on August 28, 2021 [7 favorites]


"Taylor? C'mon in here a minute and sit down, man. Listen, there's no easy way to say this, but we've been talking and ..."
posted by Paul Slade at 9:52 AM on August 28, 2021 [6 favorites]


Dave Grohl is the most wholesome person on this planet to regularly use the word "motherfuckers" and Taylor Hawkins never fails to have this huge fucking grin on his face.

Here's to 27 years of the Foo Fighters and here's to 27 more. I swear it'll be 2048 and they'll be causing a fucking riot in the nursing home as predicted .

Nandi started out a little nervous but when it got the bridge and she fucking unleashed it was ON.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:08 AM on August 28, 2021 [7 favorites]


There goes my heroine, watch her as she drums
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:11 AM on August 28, 2021 [10 favorites]


Your Childhood Pet Rock, yeah, it's cool to watch this with all of the "holy shit, this is the first time she's played with a real audience, and with this band" consciousness: The band breaks for her drum solo, and she does all the stick twirling because that's what's gotten her YouTube views, or maybe school talent show applause, but what the crowd really wants is for her to just destroy the set, and I'm not sure if she made the right call because always leave the crowd wanting more, or if it would have been more powerful the other way.

And how we can hear her confidence and sync with the other musicians improve as the set goes on.

Anyway, I might be a little obsessed, and here's yet another angle, this one has a little more of her expressions as she's playing, and the absolute joy.

When the initial drum battle thing went viral I spent some time watching various Grohl videos, and I've seen a bunch of the "invite an audience member up on stage and give them a few minutes of glory" thing, and it's always awesome, but this one feels like a 11 year old is jamming with her adult friends, and even if the band isn't always right together, she's playing with her peers.

I hope she takes these experiences into adulthood and ends up as well-adjusted a superstar as Grohl seems to be.
posted by straw at 10:41 AM on August 28, 2021 [8 favorites]


Man, just when the the pandemics starting to make Ebola crisis a fond memory, Mother Nature is looking to redecorate Louisiana, and one political party’s going from embarrassing racist uncle to full on batshit insane …

Here’s Dave and Nandi coming along to drop a bit of sunshine on things.

Like, maybe, just maybe, I will get out of bed tomorrow and think, OK, it sucks but if they can do this, I might be alright.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:45 AM on August 28, 2021 [9 favorites]




I'm an old. took my daughter to see FF on the tour where dave had a shattered ankle and performed from the sword throne. damn.

I'm really fond of these guys. nandi, well done. you fit right in.
posted by j_curiouser at 11:25 AM on August 28, 2021


You might also like Yoyoka. Dave does.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 12:14 PM on August 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


The band breaks for her drum solo, and she does all the stick twirling

The original song has a short silent break there (with some vocal whispering), and in this case the band extended the silent bit out. That break wasn't for a drum solo. Also, I'm darn near 100% sure they rehearsed the song with her at least once so she knew what she was doing there.
posted by tclark at 12:18 PM on August 28, 2021 [3 favorites]


"The Foo Fighters’ AIDS denialism should be on the record."

WE KNOW. IT'S ON THE RECORD.

This is just so classic Internet. Ever do anything wrong? Someone with bring it up as a totally irrelevant counterpoint. Even when you do an unabashedly good thing.
posted by Cyrano at 3:40 PM on August 28, 2021 [35 favorites]


I love how happy and proud and tickled Dave Grohl was. As a dad of a daughter, like he is, I felt the same way.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:16 PM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


The Foo Fighters’ AIDS denialism should be on the record.

Correction: The Foo Fighters' bass player was an AIDS denialist in 2000, and the band went along with it at first but then withdrew their support for that position only 3 years later.

Consider: the people trying to criticize them for it are probably doing more to spread misinformation about AIDS denialism and have been doing so for a longer amount of time then Foo Fighters ever did in the first place.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:01 PM on August 28, 2021 [21 favorites]


What does the FF “AIDS denialism” have to do with this? Really?
posted by sundrop at 6:43 PM on August 28, 2021 [9 favorites]


I am so pleased others here have dust and onion vapor and tears in their eyes, too. I thought it was just me getting choked up. Man these past few years have been awful. This is pure joy.
posted by PhineasGage at 7:58 PM on August 28, 2021


It's better than the other two.

Counterpoint: In the father's video from backstage, you get to see Pat Smears enjoying the hell out of Nandi's drumming.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:36 PM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


I hope one day to find something that makes me as happy as drumming does for Nandi.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:10 PM on August 28, 2021 [3 favorites]


When I first saw this, my dad genes kicked in & yeah, I pretty well wept openly. It wasn’t onions, it was freaking joy.

Also, my ex wife showed up in the post to rag on me about calling them THE Foo Fighters, and I just went fuck it & unfriended her finally, so that was 2 net wins.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:26 AM on August 29, 2021 [12 favorites]


I hope one day to find something that makes me as happy as drumming does for Nandi.

I loved that by the end of her stint she was breaking out with those fantastic Amazon yells she does when she's drumming, before that she looked (understandably) a little freaked out and I was hoping she was gonna be okay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:37 AM on August 29, 2021 [4 favorites]


Mod note: A few deleted. The band's former HIV (as the cause of AIDS) denialism has been noted, but it is not the subject of this thread. It's okay for people to have strong feelings about this, and anyone who didn't know about it can now learn more, but let's not turn this into a thread about that instead of Nandi Bushell. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:54 PM on August 29, 2021 [4 favorites]


Right!

Here's Rolling Stone's coverage of the event.

CNN also covered it here.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:29 AM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


What, no one's mentioned her mic drop with the drumsticks?!
posted by Gelatin at 7:07 AM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


The thing I've noticed about Dave Grohl is that he never stops chewing gum. And, you know, if that works for him, that's great. :-)
posted by lilywing13 at 4:33 AM on August 31, 2021


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