Photo credit - Daniel Boudist
Tickets to these shows went on sale in late November. Yay for me that I’m a member of the Acer Arena club so I could get Gen, Fee, Sean, Paul and I a ticket before the fcukers over at eBay got hold of the general admission tickets. That week didn’t end too well though. And it sucked that I wasn’t buying Yvee a ticket to the show. She loved the two shows she saw (Acer Arena December 2006 and Sydney Opera House October 2006) and had seen/heard many Foo shows throughout our time together due to her husband’s Foo OCD in collecting and listening to as many live Foo shows as possible. But she actually liked them herself. I didn’t force them on to her. She really liked the slower stuff (Aint It The Life being her favourite). She wasn’t that in to the angrier stuff (as she called it). She even had a nickname for them – Foodles. Good times.
Side story: Foo’s third album “There Is Nothing Left To Lose” is the soundtrack in my head when I think about when we got together back in late 1999. The album came out in October of that year, things heated up in November and things became permanent in December. All the while I was listening to this album constantly. In the car we would listen to it when we were going places. At home we would listen to it. Id listen to it when she wasn’t at my house. We listened to it on our way to CampFest New Years Eve 1999/2000. Fiona – I’m still angry about that trip by the way. Yvee got to “understand” her then boyfriends Foo “problem” in January 2000 when Foo played at the old HMV record store on Pitt St. The band were playing at 2pm. I got there at 8am. “Why don’t you just get there at 1?” she asked. How little did she know back then....
I’m not as in to Foo’s current album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. It just doesn’t hit me like their other stuff. It came out at a pretty fcuked up time in my life so that might have something to do with it. But the band have been on a downhill slide in terms of album quality since 2002’s One By One. In Your Honor was ok at best (there’s one good album when you cut the bloat out of the rock and acoustic discs). ESP&G has its moments though – Statues, Home, Let It Die and The Pretender are the stand out tracks on the disc. I had high hopes when I heard that Gil Norton was back producing. He produced their best album The Color And The Shape.
The Sydney leg of the tour started for me on the Thursday night when Foo guitarist Chris Shiflett's side band Jackson United played at the Annandale Hotel. I wasn't going to go, but Ben and Alicia put the guilty trip on to me so I bailed on seeing Helmet in Wollongong and went to see Jackson United instead. It was a great show, id only heard a few of their songs and was really impressed with their (way too short) 50min set.
Alicia has more Jackson united photos over at her PhotoBucket site
Before the band came on I saw Taylor Hawkins and Pat Smear at the bar. As ive met them both a few times I didn't bother them. I did however sit back and watch the other crazies hover around waiting for the right moment to pounce on them. I'm not big on bugging band members when they are out in public. I prefer to say hi, get a photo or an autograph when they are working. At the hotel on the way to the show, backstage, an instore, at the artist entrance to the venue, etc. I saw the stupid things some Springsteen fans did to meet him on the Australian tour in 2003. One time he was having lunch in the restaurant at the hotel and they just went up and interrupted him. From what I heard he was a bit annoyed. I met him out the front of his hotel on his way to the show. He was nice and totally not annoyed to say hi, have a quick chat and sign some stuff. Thats how it should be done - not annoy the artist when they are out and about trying to enjoy the city they are playing in.
But Pat did walk past me and I mentioned to him that this hotel was where the band recorded the Big Me video back in December 1995. He was surprised and I pointed to the room where it was filmed. He went up to Taylor and told him and I could see Tay mouthing "no way!" So that was the extent of my Foo band meet and greet for this tour.The shows.....
Every one of the previous 19 Foo shows I’ve seen have left me walking away with a special memory of the show. Maybe a certain song or a funny Dave Grohl joke. Sometimes I’ve met the band. Sometimes I’ve taken some cool photos. Sometimes I’ve made song requests. Sometimes I’ve had songs dedicated to me. Every show has had something special about it. It’s part of the Foo show experience for me.
And the two nights at the Acer Arena were no different.
Foo Brother Ben came. Alicia and her Melbourne crew were there. Gen came. Paul, Fee and Sean too. I was in good company. There was a few missing faces. Pam, Kim, Krystel and Ben2. And original Foo Friend Kristina. And of course my girl.
We got there about 5ish and there were about 200 kids in front. I can say kids cause at 31 I’m an old fuck compared to the current batch of Foo crazies. I met one of Alicia’s friends who was born in 1986 or 1987. Jesus H Christ – I have never felt that old in my entire life. So we were sent like sheep into a holding pen while the security egotisticalmaniacs scoped the room for fresh underage meat to hit on. I noticed a few fellow Foo crazies in the holding room (shout out to Matt and his Tiny Dancer). You kind of get used to seeing familiar faces when you have seen these guys 19 times in the same city going back to 1995.
The Foo stage on this tour has a large “B stage” situated at the rear of the floor behind the mixing desk. There is a runway/ego ramp connecting the B stage to the main stage. Id heard that the B stage was a good place to see the show so we headed there. Sure, I could have headed for the front of the stage to show the kiddies how to scream for your favourite Foo song. But I wasn’t in the mood for it and wanted to kick back and enjoy the show with good friends. So we took our positions front row centre of the B stage. Nice.
Support acts were Kaki King and The Mess Hall on both nights. Kaki is an America guitar “virtuoso” who is part of the Foo touring band – playing with Dave on The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners. The Mess Hall are an Aussie band who sometimes rock. Sometimes suck.
Foo came on about 840pm opening with Let It Die. Nice. Better than opening with The Last Song as they did on the majority of nights on the In Your Honor tour. The full 8 piece band was onstage. Joining Nate, Tay, Dave & Chris was Pat Smear (fucking A!!!) on guitar, Drew Hester playing percussion, Rami Jaffee on keyboards/piano/organ and Jessy Greene playing violin and backup vocals. She’s not bad – but no Petra Hayden. The Pretender was next. Its growing on me. Times Like These was great – one of my favourite Foo songs. Breakout was nice. Learn to Fly sucked. Always has and always will. Cheer Up Boys from the new album was good – much better played live than the album. This Is A Call is always welcome at any Foo show I go to – its the song that got me in to them back in the day. Stacked Actors was nice – a little bloated if you ask me. Its not as good as the below live version from the band’s appearance at Rock In Rio in Brazil 2001. That version has the infamous double drum solo in the middle of the song. So damn totally cool. Oh how I miss those shows when the band were loose. The good old days...
Then it was B Stage time. And our front row centre position had us right in front of Dave. Purely by chance. I swear I had no idea that that’s where we were. I thought it was a revolving stage. I swear. They did Skin And Bones, Marigold (one of the best Nirvana b-sides ever in my opinion), My Hero, Cold Day In The Sun, and But Honestly as a full 8 piece band.
Heres some of Gen's photos from the show - i really like the first one;
Then Dave stayed onstage and did his usual intro into The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners. Its cool that I was there the first time he came up with that schtick. Kaki King came out and joined Dave. The song is much better with the two of the playing it. She rocks. HUGE fingernails by the way.
Kaki left and then Dave started the intro to Everlong....
Those who know me will tell you that Everlong is my favourite Foo song. Sure Exhausted makes me giddy. So too does February Stars, Aurora, Wind Up, Alone + Easy Target, Wattershed and End Over End. And then there’s the cover songs – Iron & Stone, Have A Cigar and Sister Europe. But the last four times I’ve seen Foo, Everlong has almost kind of sucked. I like it to rock from start to finish – not go slow, then trippy, then start to rock with half the band, then slow, then totally noisily rock with the rest of the band to a screaming end. I just don’t like that. I like it either just like the CD – or straight out acoustic (Dave only). That was until I saw it this night.
And fuck me if it wasn’t one of the best versions I’ve ever seen or heard of this song. I don’t know if it was the sound of 18000 people singing along or the fact that I was finally happy to hear the song rock for a change. I think it also had something to do with the people I was with. Some of the people who were with me this night have been unbelievably helpful over the last 6 months or so. Some don’t even know how helpful they have been. Sure – I don’t see these people all the time, but the odd SMS or MSN message when I’m feeling up or down really goes a long way. Some of these people I met through Foo. Others through other artists. Others due to pathetic HSC marks. But this night we were all there together rockin out to one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen.
So after Everlong we got Monkey Wrench and All My Life. That’s a good two-fer to end the main set on. So the band come back out after the hilarious Encore video. (I cant find a YouTube video of the first night). After the video they do the slow version of Big Me. Oh how I miss the old days when it was faster and shorter. Long Road To Ruin had me ready to snore. Its just like Learn To Fly. Boring. Boring. Boring. Generator got me going. I’m always in the mood to hear me some talk box!
And then BAM!! – Wattershed!!! YAY!!! It was quick. It was rockin. It was awesome. It was just like the 1999 version.
Ben, Gen and I hugged after it. It was totally a hug worthy moment.
Hopefully a performance of a classic Foo song like this one will prompt the more casual fans to go out and download/buy the older pre 1999 stuff and rock out to some less mainstream stuff that they hear on the radio.
For All The Cows was also cool. I hadn’t heard it for a while (i get bored with it sometimes). Best Of You is a great song to end the show on.
After the show Ben graciously coughed up a full set of Dave’s guitar pic’s. I scored an Echoes, a Silence, a Patience and a Grace one together with two DG606 ones. Thanks Ben – you rocked before you gave me these. Now you rock even more. Heres a pic of my pic's
So that was night one.
The second show saw Ben and I get in the same spot as night one. The set list was similar to night one (no Generator though). But we were lucky enough to get Hey, Johnny Park! And Alone + Easy Target. HJP is great and all, but it was A+ET that floored me. It came from nowhere. Ben and I yelled out for Wind Up and Exhausted, but Dave ignored us. He did hear me yell out for a bass solo though – I copied a guy from the night before. Nate looked at Ben and I and said no way. And then Dave said something about “shut up dude, you DONT want to hear no bass solo” That was nice.
Heres some of my photos from the second show.
After the show Ben and I were passing out his stash of DG guitar pic’s. It was hard to give them away. Minutes earlier people were beating on each other to score one. Now people looked at me funny when i tried to give them one. Stupid one in tenners.
We said goodbye to the Melbournians. They gave us a Charlie’s Angels send-off. It’s some in-joke that I’m not in on. But it was funny.
We hung out at the artist entrance after everyone left. I wasn’t interested in getting anything signed. I’m sorted in that area. We saw a little kid waiting to hopefully meet the band – probably 8 or 9 years old. Ben gave him one of Dave’s guitar pic’s. The kid was stoked. So was his mum. It was his first ever Foo show and first ever concert.
So yeah, two great shows. I wasn’t that excited to see the show in New Jersey when Paul and I are there this coming July. But I am now. Fingers crossed they pull out one or two rarities each night from now on.
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