Foo Fighters

Toni managed to score tickets to the Foo Fighters on Friday night at Acer Arena and was kind enough to offer one of them to me. It was one of those gigs that sold out in less than 10 minutes, so there wasn't much hope of me getting them any other way. The grainy, poor quality is the result of massive zoom, we were not exactly close to the action, but I'm not complaining.

I have seen them twice before, both at the Big Day Out. In 2000 they were on at about 3pm, and I was in the mosh - nearly lost all my clothing and at least one shoe. They were ok, but the sound was pretty ordinary and Dave Grohl's voice was not inspiring. In 2003 they headlined, but the sound was so bad I didn't even bother to stay. My sister has seen them a couple of times, and also found Dave Grohl's voice pretty dodgy. We had kinda concluded that he can't actually sing, despite being a damn good entertainer.

Friday night's gig has forced me to change my stance on that. His voice was amazing. From screaming to melodic in a heartbeat. Just incredible. 2.5hrs of fantastic entertainment. The little clip up there is of the end of the acoustic set on a small stage at the back of the dance floor area and Dave's return to the main stage. During the acoustic set he played "The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" with Kaki King. His intro for this was longer than the song itself - I think he was genuinely affected by that story.

He is one funny man. It's nice to see a guy who loves being a rock star but doesn't take himself too seriously. The "encore" charade included him appearing on the screens on stage (the 4 very white blobs on the main stage) and miming feigned reluctance to come back on stage and negotiating the number of songs they'd do - 4 was what he was bullied into. 6 was what they actually did. Big Me, The Long Road to Ruin, Generator, Watershed, For All the Cows and Best of You. I am not a die hard Fooeys fan, so I didn't know Watershed or For All the Cows, but then Dave forgot the words to Watershed, so I don't feel so bad.

The only songs I would have liked to have seen are DOA and Disenchanted Lullaby. I believe they did DOA in Brisbane.

It was good to see a band that was loud enough too - you could sing along without irritating the person next to you. What would a Foo Fighters gig be without a good sing along?