Ok.  It’s been just over a week and I am only now recovered from the Foo Fighters concert…  Holy crap did I hurt after that show!  Like right after!  Like the music stopped, we turned around on the floor to leave and could barely move our leg muscles!  I’m getting old.  Standing on the floor rocking out is not the same on my body as it was 20 years ago…

I blame it on fighting off people trying to push their way past us to get closer to the stage.  We were super close to the front, like third row, and centre-ish.  Great spots!  Spots that apparently many other people wanted and had no qualms about trying to take them using bodily force, so we had to stand in battle position and stand our ground, hence the sore muscles 😀

 

But so totally worth it.  Damn we were so close!  And the Foo Fighters were soooo good!  This band is my sister’s band. She loves them almost like I love U2. I like them and had never seen them live,  so I asked her if she wanted to go, and if she wanted GA or seats, cuz I recognize not everyone is floor crazy like me!

We got GA and I was excited to see how this process works for other bands and fans.  I only know the U2 GA world where fans start and control their own lines well in advance of the show (e.g. the line for the next U2 Dublin show started four days before show day)…

I’ve lived in many countries around the world and other than in Johannesburg, South Africa, the only culture shock I’ve ever experienced in my life was at this concert.  We arrived on the floor just after 6pm, well after the doors were opened, and there is pretty much NO ONE on the floor – like under 100 people. Two rows along the stage and a bit of a third row at the centre.  Thats it.

I don’t understand. First, if there’s only this number of people here after the doors opened, was there even a line waiting in advance at all?  When did the first person show up? I assume not at 7am like I’ll be doing next week.  I can’t help but wonder if there was any mad dash for the rail? No adrenaline pumping, or rush of excitement of getting a great spot on the floor as you run to beat the crowd?

 

I mean, its not like the floor was empty because no one ever showed up.  I’m pretty sure the concert sold out.  It was packed by the time the Foo hit the stage. But it remained mostly empty even during the opening act.  I don’t understand… This is not the GA experience I know, lol.

Mind you, if you are going to push and shove people later to get that rail spot, why show up early? These things don’t happen for U2 GA.  I mean a lot of people rock up last minute and take it easy at the back of the floor.  But there is a large culture of showing up days in advance, getting a number written on your hand, checking in at pre-set times, and then staying in line for hours and hours and hours on show day and hanging out with fellow fans.  Then the mad dash (or fast walk) for rail once the doors are open.

Once you get your spot, its yours until you leave it.  Yes, there’s an organic ebb and flow of movement of the crowd where people shift and you step in closer.  Sure there are some elbows, and people trying to squeeze their way in.  Its not ALL courtesy and peace, love, and happiness.  But there’s generally no moshing or shoving matches to the point people almost fall on the floor.  At least not in my experience.

Anyways.  The music.  The concert.  Dave Frickin Grohl!

This may have been my first Foo show, but I’ve heard tales that even if the music wasn’t legend would have catapulted this band to Rock God Status.  I heard about Dave breaking his leg on stage and playing on.  I’ve heard of him bringing a kid and his family to the side of the stage to watch the show because the kid was clearly uncomfortable on the floor.  Bringing others to sing with him on stage (including Rick Astley).

 

Dave and the Foo have that thing that I love about my rock gods.  Yes, that passion for the music, but more so that soul.  That awesome human being-ness.  That you’re an unequalled god of all things rock but you’re so frickin kind and aware of those around you quality that kicks my rock gods into the stratosphere of rock godliness…

Oh man, I still haven’t really talked about the actual concert!!! This is why I love concerts – its never just about the music 😛  But then there’s the music.

And the music was sooooo good.  My sis made me two Spotify playlists of her favourite songs: Foo 101 – their hits, to which I added songs from recent setlists (including somehow the Ramones’ Blitzkreig Bop – which, as it turns out, was not a mistake- see below); and Foo 102 – songs to sleep to. I’ve been listening to 101 for months so I could sing along.

 

I was already familiar with most of these songs, but there were some new ones to learn, one of which instantly became my favourite Foo song – La Dee Da.  I love it! Right from the first notes, the riff, the chorus, the Grohl growl… all of it!

And they played it live, third song in.  So good!  And all the hits and so many others.  This concert was one of the ones they had to reschedule because Dave lost his voice. (This was a day or two after Bono lost his voice mid-song, so Dave hilariously said in his announcement postponing the Edmonton and Calgary shows that this was the last time he makes out with Bono. :D)  Dave thanked us all for showing up for the new date (as if we’d miss it!) and promised to play something from each of their albums.  (Does anyone know if they did?)

There was even a completely enjoyable karaoke type section when Dave introduced the band.  They played Blitzkrieg Bop, Queen’s Under Pressure and Another One Bites the Dust.  For his introduction song, Rami Jaffee, the keyboardist,  started playing John Lennon’s Imagine (oh, my heart!) and Dave starts spewing poetic sentiments about singing this amazing song about togetherness and how appropriate it will be as we’ve all come together tonight, strangers enjoying the love of music, blah blah, really milking it, and Rami’s still playing this beautiful Imagine, and we know that Dave is NOT going to sing Imagine because he’s milking it to much, going on and on and on, (like this sentence) but just WHAT will he sing??? Jump. He sings Jump by Van Halen… but to the tempo and arrangement of Imagine, which Rami plays on…. It was brilliant.  Probably my second favourite moment of the night, after La Dee Da.

And then Dave took the drums.  Can anyone forget that he was the drummer for Nirvana?  Nope.  This man is born to play music, whatever form, whatever instrument.

 

For the encore, they brought out the Brothers Osbourne, who had their own gig somewhere in Edmonton the night before.  They sang Breakdown by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  The guitarist was extreme!

 

And  that  is it.  Just hit after hit after hit.  Another legendary band with a catalogue covering decades of music. Another band I have added to my list of seeing once is not enough.

If they tour, I will come.

The Setlist (from www.setlist.fm)

Run
The Sky Is a Neighborhood
La Dee Da
Drum Solo
Sunday Rain
Something From Nothing
Walk
These Days
The Pretender
Times Like These
All My Life
Learn to Fly
Under My Wheels (Alice Cooper cover)
(Band Intros) Guitar Solo: Another One Bites the Dust
Keyboard Solo: Imagine / Jump
Blitzkrieg Bop
Under Pressure (Queen cover)
My Hero
Breakout
Monkey Wrench
Everlong

Encore:
Breakdown (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover) (with Brothers Osborne)
This Is a Call
Cold Day in the Sun
Best of You

For even more photos from this concert, check out my photo gallery.