Live Review: Foo Fighters + Rise Against + The Delta Riggs – ANZ Stadium, Sydney (26.02.15)

Like anything deemed “popular” in contemporary music today – especially by such mainstream media as Triple M – it’s fair to say that the Foo Fighters are a band that you either love or you hate. Though they hardly inspire the same sort of vitriol of, say, Nickelback, they certainly have their detractors. But being it’s 2015, you’ve lived through dozens of their hit singles and you’ve had dozens of opportunities to see them live (they’ve been great friend of our country for a long time now), I daresay you already know which side of the fence you sit on. Which perhaps makes a review like this largely redundant. I made my mind up on this band a very long time ago. Yes, I am proudly a fan, and so please do accept my opinion with a nice dose of bias.

Sydney rockers The Delta Riggs scored the national local support gig for the tour after being spotted by someone from Team Foo at a venue in LA last year. And you can’t blame them, their big-balled rock and roll was born to exist on a stage of this magnitude. And though their setup was dwarfed by the mountains of tech hidden behind them, they nonetheless did themselves justice, wrapping up their all-too-brief set with “Counter Revolution” as I made my way into the already busy venue. A venue, which should be pointed out, is our very own Olympic Stadium, able to hold some 70,000 punters – making this the biggest gig the Foos have ever played in Sydney.

Rise Against fulfilled the Foo’s tradition of the supporting international guest. Last time we had Fucked Up and Tenacious D. In an earlier encounter we witnessed Kaiser Chiefs. But even out of that varied list, the Chicago based hardcore group still feel the most out of place here, though they certainly gave it their all and had more than a few fans up the front. Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance joined the group for a cover of Misfits’ “Astro Zombies” which was the highlight of the set, and the group closed with two of their better known tracks, “I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore” and “Saviour”. Their brand of “melodic hardcore” isn’t my thing, but it certainly got our ears ringing in time for the main attraction.

Ah yes, Foo Fighters have returned to Australia, with a new album in tow – Sonic Highways – and a mammoth setlist, full of huge jams, special guests, their greatest hits and even without an encore, the 25+ track setlist spanned some two hours and 45 minutes that didn’t see frontman Dave Grohl let up his rock and roll swagger for a moment. He was on fire, running from side to side, across the stadium and back, living the self confessed “rock and roll fantasy” in front of tens of thousands of people. Along the way he fulfilled his early promise to deliver tracks from each of their eight full length studio albums (nine if you include their Greatest Hits, and even got to bring friend Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine onto the stage to join them for a cover of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love”. Brad is of course in Australia as the drummer for The Smashing Pumpkins (touring with Soundwave) and worked with the band on the 2013 Sound City project. Seemed like a missed opportunity to sneak in their track from that record, “Time Slowing Down”, no? Maybe it wouldn’t have been the same without Chris Goss…

The tracks off Sonic Highways sounded fantastic live – and given how they were written, it’s of little surprise. But those who were hoping for more from the record may have been disappointed – only three tracks made the cut, with album opener “Something From Nothing” appropriately opening things up, before they took us on a trip down memory lane. “The Pretender”, “Learn To Fly”, “Breakout” (dedicated to the “old crusty motherfucker fans”), “My Hero” and “Big Me” all were pumped out before Dave had the chance to get much of a word in!

Unlike many other rock bands at this level, the Fooies don’t accompany that memory lane with the bang and pizzaz that seems to generally be associated with a stadium rock concert. There’s no fireworks, no confetti, no wall of sparks. There’s just a band, their music and a routine that we’ve come to know pretty well. They’ve been doing the bit where Dave goes to middle of the floor for a long time now. It’s just further away than it was in the Arena shows. Having a second stage pop up on the floor, too, is nothing new. They did that indoors on the Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace tour (though it descended rather than ascended in that instance). Only this time it was about covering some of their favourite bands on a rotating stage rather than highlighting their acoustic material (with a triangle solo and all). But they do all this because it works. Old fans still eat it up because it’s years between visits, while new fans get to experience the spectacle of it all and have the chance to hear a set that’s designed as much for the casual Triple M listener as the hardcore fans.

Yes, all the hits are there: “Everlong” closed out the encoreless night (a change of tact from past tours), in electric form no less, “Times Like These” enjoyed both acoustic and electric versions as the band re-emerged at the centre of the arena halfway through the track (a great moment, to be fair), “Generator” got a good singalong from the older fans, as did “This is a Call”. But as much as this reads like any setlist they’ve played on this tour so far – bar the Brad Wilk guest appearance – a snippet of Missy Elliot’s “Work It” with Rami Jaffee on the accordion was one of the more spontaneous and entertaining moments of a largely scripted night. Dave digressed he’d now never get the song out of his head.

Though the show may not have been much different to what we saw a few years ago, the Fooies certainly maintained their status as one of the best rock and roll bands on the planet, delivering a no-holds-barred (almost) three hour show, giving Dave Grohl the chance to keep living the dream, keep fighting the Foo, and reminding the kids of today that they too might one day be a rock icon, before he jumping into “Under Pressure” exclaiming “if you don’t know this song, I can’t be your friend!”. Dutifully, everyone sang along, saying to their mates – “but I want to be Dave Grohl’s friend!” And that’s the beauty of this band, and that frontman. It’s the same feeling you get every time you see them live…

The Foo Fighters continue their Australian tour with The Delta Riggs and Rise Against in Melbourne tomorrow night, before moving onto Tasmania (!!), Adelaide and Perth. For tickets and more details head to: http://www.frontiertouring.com/foofighters