Last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to go to the Foo Fighters concert at the Thebby with the normal group of lads. Although to clarify, the group was normal, but the actual lads themselves are definitely abnormal.
The Foof originally intended to skip Adelaide on their Australian In Your Honor tour but they (much like The Hives back in October) decided that good old SA shouldn't miss out on the action. We were very happy they changed their plans, and so were the other 2000 people that were there at the Thebby that night.
The supporting act:
Before I start talking about the support act, I'm going to spend a moment here to explain why the Foo Fighters are champs. Even though it would be an hour or more till they actually got on stage, Dave Grohl & the guys obviously wanted to make sure the crowd had a good time from the moment they entered the theatre.
Just as we got into the building, a nearby Port Power fan got all excited & wet himself (his hair) because he spotted the Cornes brothers ahead of us in the line. A giggly elderly man was (by request, I assume) getting tickled by one of the security staff, and I was randomly pulled aside for explosives testing, just like at NinchCON! Exciting pre-show entertainment for everyone...!
I won't go as far as to suggest Dave Grohl reads Pants (unlike Shakira, Yumiko Udo, Richard Branson & Burt Reynolds), but it makes you wonder if this is more than a simple coincidence...
Alrighty, on to the actual support act now. To put it simply, they were crap.
I would go so far as to say they are now the worst supporting act I've seen all year, worse than End Of Fashion (who didn't even show up to support Gomez), and worse than the nameless support act at the NinchCON 2005 roadtrip earlier this year.
To be fair, musically they weren't as bad as the horrible Ninch support act, but the reason why I've labelled them as the worst is not because of them so much as the audience. At Ninch, the support act was crap and the crowd let them know, booing and hurling abuse (and/or bottles) at the stage. At the Thebby, the crowd (half of which I swear have never been to a concert before) were actually applauding the support act. Jesus, don't encourage them; get them off the stage!
The only reason I'll mention their name (The Nation Blue) here on the site is so that when they eventually Google themselves, their egos will deflate a little when they find out that Pants didn't like their set or the fact that the commercial-radio-listening majority of that night's Thebby crowd can't tell the difference between good music and a Crazy Frog mobile phone ringtone. :/
The intermission:
The mid-show intermission music was mostly Jane's Addiction, and I remember the post-show music being the "not entirely stoned but we're almost there"-era Dandy Warhols, circa 2003.
The main event:
The Foo Fighters put on a good show. I have known this for a long time now, having witnessed their fantastic show at the 2003 Big Day Out as well as having heard recordings of at least 20 live Foof shows from around the globe. Wednesday's show at the Thebby was great and was in their typical style, but the audience wasn't the typical crowd I was used to seeing.
As I mentioned in the opening paragraphs, the Foof weren't originally planning to do a show in Adelaide. One of the local commercial radio stations, Nova, helped start a petition that gained over 6,000 signatures & was probably the biggest contributing factor for the Foof's SA visit. As much as I hate Nova (for other reasons) I am glad the petition worked, but I wasn't the only one who didn't like the crowds that night. Kids were running about everywhere, the mosh area was dead, and the crowd couldn't clap anywhere near in-tempo. They were very generous with their sloppy clapping though, inappropriately applauding the supporting act and the roadies, and they went absolutely crazy with applause when the crew were doing lighting checks on stage. Idiots...
If you ignore the crowd (and the fact that the people in the seated areas of the Thebby insisted on standing for the entire show, grrr), the rest of the show was quite enjoyable. The Foo Fighters have a very strong back catalogue of songs and I was hoping that most of the show would focus on their earlier stuff, but it was the "In Your Honor tour" so the show was biased towards their newer material. I'm still getting used to the new album but I don't think it beats their other ones.
They began with a string of songs from the new album, but started to play more of the old-school stuff as the night went on. Every couple of songs the band would play some bridging interlude music while Dave Grohl (Mr. Charisma) would talk to the audience. Dave, the hardest working moustache in the industry, sporting his lamb-chop sideburns and his mop hair, is a very entertaining guy. Throughout the show he shared stories about wet jeans, his infamous 2003 visit to a Queensland jailhouse and he also reflected back on the last time he was in Adelaide.
He said that because we asked for (not demanded) an Adelaide show, he'd treat us to some songs that they rarely play live anymore. Instead of the typical "You guys are the best crowd ever!" bullshit you normally get at most concerts, Dave actually meant what he said to us. Considering the large number of live Foof recordings I have in my collection (cough), it was fantastic to hear songs I've never heard live before, such as Up In Arms, M.I.A. and Big Me.
Hearing those songs played negated any 'meh'-ness of some of the new songs, plus there were plenty of other great tunes in the 2 hour show. If I had to pick song highlights there would be a few...: Hey, Johnny Park!, My Hero & Stacked Actors were all great ones mid-show, and Monkey Wrench to close the main set. Returning in the encore was Everlong performed in almost complete darkness, then drummer Taylor Hawkins switched with Dave to sing Cold Day In The Sun, before One By One became the last song of the encore. Only a couple song highlights... :)
Despite all the Nova kiddies & the fact that I never really made proper use of that nice squishy seat that was reserved for me, I just have to look at the song highlights list above to see that it was a really enjoyable show. As an added bonus I got to see Dave Grohl work his magic on a drum kit in the encore, plus I also bumped into Limpy from the forum after the show.
Considering how hard it was for so many people to get tickets to the show, I should thank the dude who scored one for me (you know who you are - widening the corridors & adding more lanes...). Cheers dude! Anyway, I'm very happy I went to this show, definitely one of the top three shows I've been to this year...