Foo Fighters fans were left wondering if they would see the start of the show in Melbourne last night after enduring queues of up to 1km long before getting through the gates.
Etihad Stadium was completely under resourced for the 46,000 concertgoers and failed to properly manage security checks for that number of people as they entered the stadium. A snake of people fumed as they were delayed getting in and over 10,000 missed the special guest support act Weezer because of it.
Once inside, the atmosphere totally changed. From the first song Foo Fighters played like dinosaurs … and I mean that in a positive way. Foo Fighters really are the last of the great rock bands. 23 years after the first Foo Fighters album there hasn’t been a straight out rock and roll band on the planet capable of generating this type of crowd or performing this type of show.
Melbourne was the last night on the Australian tour and as a parting gift, the show had a few surprises. Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo joined the band for a cover of Kiss ‘Detroit Rock City’.
The show had an Aussie connection with Foo Fighters honouring the late Malcolm Young of AC/DC. ‘Let There Be Rock’ was played for Malcolm’s wife Linda and earlier Grohl dedicated ‘Big Me’ to “little Ross”, Malcolm’s son who was wandering around the crowd (unnoticed) all night.
The other Aussie connection was the rarely played ‘Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners’ dedicated to the miners. Grohl wrote the instrumental for the two miners who survived the Tasmanian mine collapse of 2006 and re-entered the world asking for “some water and an iPod filled with Foo Fighters songs”.
‘For All The Cows’ was slipped into the set. A fan at a TV appearance of The Project the night before was adamant they play it. It was the first time in a year it has been in a Foo Fighters setlist.
A Foo Fighters gig is more than just Foo Fighters music. The band played homage to Queen, Alice Cooper, Talking Heads and The Ramones along the way.
Foo Fighters are an oversized pub band. We’d all love to see this set in a pub but that won’t happen. Seeing them in a venue this size just didn’t work. Etihad was too big for this band, it lacked atmosphere and those entry issues pissed off a lot of fans before they even got in.
It will be interesting to see how Ed Sheeran holds up in the same venue soon. He might very well be swallowed up with Etihad’s sense of nothingness. It worked for Coldplay because Coldplay had a visual show that took into account the space available. Foo Fighters were a rock band with a couple of big screens. This one should have been in Rod Laver Arena.
Foo Fighters 30 January 2018
Run (from Concrete and Gold, 2017)
All My Life (from One By One, 2002)
Learn to Fly (from There Is Nothing Left To Lose, 1999)
The Pretender (from Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, 2007)
The Sky Is a Neighborhood (from Concrete and Gold, 2017)
Rope (from Wasting Light, 2011)
Sunday Rain (from Concrete and Gold, 2017)
My Hero (from The Color and the Shape, 1997)
These Days (from Wasting Light, 2011)
Walk (from Wasting Light, 2011)
Let It Die (from Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, 2007)
Breakout (from There Is Nothing Left To Lose, 1999)
Under My Wheels (Alice Cooper cover) (Vocals Chris Shiflett)
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads cover)
Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones cover) (During Band Intro)
Under Pressure (Queen cover) (Vocals Taylor Hawkins)
Monkey Wrench (from The Color and the Shape, 1997)
Big Me (from Foo Fighters, 1995)
Detroit Rock City (KISS cover) (with Rivers Cuomo)
Best of You (from In Your Honor, 2005)
Encore:
Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners (from Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, 2007)
Times Like These (from One By One, 2002)
For All the Cows (from Foo Fighters, 1995)
This Is a Call (from Foo Fighters, 1995)
Let There Be Rock (AC/DC cover) (Dedicated to Malcolm Young)
Everlong (from The Color and the Shape, 1997)
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