We have all heard stories about the bizarre stage antics of musicians in the Golden Age of music. Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire, Ozzy Osbourne bit the heads off of live bats and all sorts of other crazy stunts. There is one thing in common with a lot of these stories, besides pure insanity, and that is the simple fact that most of them occurred before the turn of the century. I believed most of those slightly terrifying yet brilliant performance skills were long gone, and I have been to my fair share of concerts, but I can now confidently say that my mind has been completely changed after seeing the Foo Fighters on the evening of Aug. 17th.

It was not that the Foo Fighters created circumstance to shine as performers during this most recent tour, but rather everything they managed to pull off despite the circumstances created for them. The lead singer-songwriter and founder of the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, had a crippling stage accident just before the U.S. portion of the tour at the start of one of his shows. While jogging across the stage and shredding on his guitar at a concert in Sweden, he slipped and fell off the stage, snapping his ankle in the process. Now normally, this would warrant a cancellation of the show, if not the entire upcoming tour- but not if you’re Dave Grohl, apparently. After having his ankle set, he got back out on stage and finished the show with a broken ankle. It does not end there either.

Dave did not want to have to cancel the large collection of U.S. shows he had planned due to his injury, so he had his manager order him a throne that he designed so that he could sit and play guitar during the tour. If that is not the coolest thing he possibly could have done in his situation I do not know what is.

It was not just this superfluous and and creative display of his ability to surpass obstacles that makes him such a good performer. His ability to reach out to the crowd and make them feel personally connected to him is one of the most notably valuable abilities a musician can have, along with the fact that he soloed using his leg cast, a move that would earn even Jimi Hendrix’s respect.

I interviewed Jon Thurmond, a math teacher here at Arapahoe High School about his experience at the concert. “I feel like when you have that long of a career in that industry, you have to enjoy it to sustain it as much as he does,” Thurmond said. “His showmanship and the way he really connected to the crowd surprised me. He seems to really enjoy it, and I think one of the reasons he enjoys it is because people know his character, so he can enjoy it, too.”

So there it is: it seems that outrageous, absurd performances from musicians are not quite dead yet and that is some pretty leg-casted-kick-in-the-butt good news for concert lovers.