Minnesota memories of Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins include unannounced First Ave shows

Adding even more of a bummer twist for Minnesota fans greatly saddened by Friday's tragic news of drummer Taylor Hawkins' death: He and the Foo Fighters were booked to play a surprise gig at First Avenue in May 2020 to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary.

Had COVID not happened, that canceled performance certainly would've been a memorable way to see the last Foo show in town; or at least the last one with the band's heyday lineup. Hipsters or punk snobs who've poo-pooed the Foo for years — a byproduct of any band that gets that big and ubiquitous — probably would've lined up for that one, or suffered serious FOMO.

The Foo Fighters played a surprise show once before at First Ave on Oct. 18, 2002, when they were already on the verge of arena-headliner status. It was one of three "underplay" gigs the band booked to promote their fourth album, "One by One," due out four days later.

Frontman Dave Grohl announced the concert that week on 93-X FM. Tickets vanished as quickly as it took Hawkins to get dressed that morning (the Californian drummer famously dressed like a surfer even when in Minnesota in October).

When it comes to having fun while still putting on a good show, few bands do (did?) it as well as the Foo Fighters. Hawkins was often the one with the wickedest grin on his face egging Grohl on. That night's show was a prime example.

The bandleader took the stage playing a goofy, Dale Earnhardt Jr.-designed NASCAR-brand Gibson guitar and raced through songs including the new ones "All My Life" and "Times Like These." At one point, he climbed the stage-right speaker stack with his guitar in hand and wound up rocking out at the top of the stairwell overlooking the dancefloor — all while Hawkins kept the groove going on stage. That the speaker stack stood tall enough for Grohl reach the second floor tells you how loud it was.

That was also the night Grohl brought up the late, great Grant Hart — co-leader and drummer of one of his all-time favorite bands, Hüsker Dü — to sing his 1984 classic "Never Talking to You Again." Hüsker Dü bassist Greg Norton posted a photo Friday night of Hawkins' drum kit rising from the stage at Xcel Center when he and Hart also joined them in 2011. That was one of three exhausting but exhilarating, marathon-paced gigs the Foo played at the St. Paul hockey arena, including their last one in town in 2018 (memorably that tour's final show, too).

The 2002 First Ave show already ranked as one of my all-time favorite shows at the club, and I'd bet my Nirvana bootleg collection that the band members had a blast, too. Hence their plan to come back and play in 2020.

Of course, Grohl had a history at First Ave going back to playing 7^th St. Entry with his earlier band Scream, and then he played with Nirvana in their famous '91 main-room show. The Foo Fighters actually played there opening for Mike Watt and Hovercraft (with Eddie Vedder!) in May 1995 two months before the debut Foo Fighters album landed. They returned soon after the record arrived, and were interviewed at the gig for their first Rolling Stone magazine feature.

Taylor wasn't in the band yet for those early gigs, though; probably not through happenstance, they didn't become the mega-famous rock-starry Foo Fighters until he was behind the kit.

I highly suspect the band will cancel its tour coming to US Bank Stadium in August, a date co-promoted by First Ave that had to be moved from the Gophers' football stadium out of COVID protocols. But I sort of hope they still play the summer gigs. There aren't a lot of post-1980s-era rock bands that can fill stadiums, and the Foo were the perfect rock band to do it and make it a fun one.

Just like I'm personally happy I still got to see "the Who" in concert even though I was too young to see them with Keith Moon (who died in 1978), I hope kids these days will still get to enjoy the mega-sized Foo experience in years to come. I'm sure Hawkins — who always looked like a kid having the time of his life drumming behind Grohl — would also like to see that.