Well, no, they proved on Friday (New Zealand Time) that they are very much alive. While there were obviously going to be some moments over the past 7 years where they would’ve questioned if there was a future, bands swap members all the time. Maybe someone wants to settle down and start a family, if the band wanted to continue on in the meantime, would their motives be questioned?
Taylor Hawkins wasn’t the first drummer in the Foo Fighters and not the last, but no-one is out there claiming the current iteration of the Foo Fighters isn’t the Foos. We were at Western Springs when the Foo Fighters concert caused a seismic event, and we were the proverbial first in line when they came back with Josh Freese. The experience still felt very much like the Foos and despite the naysayers on the YouTube comment scroll being contrarians solely because they think it makes them look intelligible or edgy, the livestream still feels like Linkin Park.
The brand still has momentum (in fact, has been steadily gaining followers since 2017) and there is only ONE reason Chester isn’t still with them making music and it isn’t stood there on that stage.
“Make new music, leave Chester’s legacy alone”. Why?
If they adhered to that policy, Chester’s era wouldn’t have existed in the first place (or at least all of the Xero music would’ve been forgotten to time).