Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver, Paramore Usher Invasion Into L.A.

September 15, 2007 - Home Depot Center, Carson, CA

Saturday at the Home Depot Center, usually home to David Beckham and the LA Galaxy, KROQ transformed the center for their annual Invasion concert. For the first time, KROQ re-located their large festival from the Inland “909″ to good ol’ Los Angeles, and what a great idea it was. With an amazing turnout at the beautiful venue, Paramore, an MTV favorite, opened up the main stage around 3:10pm. They started off their set with an old single, a crowd favorite that took the fans from dead to screaming and alive in seconds. It was my first time seeing them live, and what a show it was. Hayley Williams, the insanely dyed-redhead lead singer, played to the crowd as all the young fans in the front row yelled her name back at her. I couldn’t tell if I left Paramore’s set deaf because of the music blasting from the speakers or from the massive crowd screaming at my back. Either way, seeing Paramore perform live for the first time was well worth it!

One hour later Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party took the stage, and man do they know how to put on a show. Between Perry and his wife Etty (backup singer) making out onstage, to Perry jumping into the photo pit to pour his bottle of wine into the fans’ beer cups, this set was over the top. Only at a KROQ concert would you ever see something like that.

Later on, Tommy Lee’s “best friend” Kid Rock took the stage. Let me say, out of all the musicians at Invasion this year he was by far the biggest surprise to me when it came to talent. At one point during his 40 min set he walked around to every instrument (guitar, drums, mixing table, etc.) and proceeded to play each as if he was a master at every instrument. It was absolutely incredible, and it definitely gave me a newfound look on Kid Rock’s musical talents.

Thanks to a rotating stage, providing a non-stop live show, the next band was able to set up their equipment on the other side. After Kid Rock finished his set and escorted his four go-go dancers off the stage, the rotating platform begin to move to reveal Velvet Revolver to the crowd. Of course like always Slash played the crap out of his guitar as if he came out of mother’s womb with it, as Scott Weiland screamed out some amazing vocals.

Following Velvet Revolver was by far the best performance of the night. The infamous Foo Fighters took the stage. Dave Grohl opened their set with a solo to ease the crowd into an amazing one-hour show. The best part of their set had to have been the moment where Dave Grohl jumped into the photo pit onto the shoulders of a large security guard. Thank God for wireless technology because the next 5 minutes of their set Dave Grohl played his wireless guitar on top of the security’s shoulders as he ran him through the crowd from one side of the arena to the other. I have never seen something like that before! What an amazing performance!

Joining these bands were other amazing artists, such as Hot Hot Heat, Against Me!, Cypress Hill, Chris Cornell and Smashing Pumpkins closing the night out. Overall it was a great day filled with insane performances. Check out just a couple of photos I was able to take from the photo pit thanks to KROQ!