Back & Forth - The Foo Fighters Tribute returns to Rockin' on the River

No longer still learning to fly, Back & Forth — The Foo Fighters Tribute has been entertaining audiences for nearly half a decade. At this point, the Stark County-based band knows exactly what types of fans attend its Dave Grohl love fest. "There's an audience who comes out for live music and they just want to hear a band," said drummer Kevin Kirtz, who has seen the Foo Fighters twice in concert. "Maybe they're rock fans, not necessarily big fans of the Foo Fighters, but they'll have a good time. "The other audience type are your diehard Foo Fighters fans. Those shows are a lot of fun. They come in and dance and sing and scream and yell the whole night. The deeper cuts they love versus somebody who heard 'Everlong.'" Up next, Back & Forth —The Foo Fighters Tribute returns to Rockin' on the River as an opener for Dirty Deeds Xtreme AC/DC on July 7 at the Lorain Port Authority Black River Landing. While audiences can expect to hear a career retrospective with "Monkey Wrench," "My Hero," "Learn to Fly," "The Best of You" and "The Pretender," the tribute act takes a few liberties that it believes are Grohl-approved. "We've got a theory in our band that if the Foo Fighters cover the song it gives us free license to do the same," he said. "What we do is we try to mix and match as much Foo-centric and Foo-adjacent material as we can. "We cover some Radiohead, Queen and Led Zeppelin. We even throw some Nirvana in there just to say before he was Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters he was Dave Grohl of Nirvana." Naturally you can't talk about the Foo Fighters without mentioning the sudden and sad death last spring of its drummer Taylor Hawkins. Kirtz said the tragic news hit the members of Back & Forth hard. "It was horrible emotionally," he said. "We actually had a show the next night. It was one of the most awkward shows we had ever done. Being the drummer, it was horrible. And it's still horrible to this day." After Hawkins' death, the drummer said he's witnessed something special at Back & Forth shows. "Since his passing, on my bass drum head I've had (a photo of) him," he said. "A couple of times I thought about just throwing our logo back on, but don't have the heart to do it. "I still want him front and center. It's amazing when I take the cover off the drums when we go on how many people pull out their phones and start immediately snapping pictures of my drum set with Taylor's face. They ask if they can take selfies." These days the drummer feels as though it's his job to keep the spirit of Hawkins alive. "I sure as hell try," he said. Contact John Benson at ndiffrence@att.net. IF YOU GOWHAT: Rockin' on the River presents Dirty Deeds Xtreme AC/DC with Back & Forth - The Foo Fighters TributeWHEN: 6:15 p.m. July 7WHERE: Lorain Port Authority Black River Landing, 421 Black River Lane, Lorain,TICKETS: $7 (children ages 12 and younger are free) INFO: rockinontheriver.com