Summer is officially here and what a better way to start than rocking out to Foo Fighters at London Stadium. I’m aware this is a slightly late review, but trust me, it was worth the wait. Plus I wanted to open my new Monday Music feature in true rock style.
In my opinion, Foo Fighters are the greatest live band I’ve ever seen. I first saw them live at Reading Festival 2012 and fell in love with them. I then saw them again in Milton Keynes in 2015 and they still blew me away. Last week at London Stadium was my third time of seeing them live and still outstanding. Every riff, chord, drum beat and vocal is so powerful and memorising.
They opened up with All My Life then went straight into Learn To Fly and an extended version of The Pretender which were all awesome. My favourite part of a Foo Fighters gig is their skills to perform extended instrumental pieces, solo pieces and cover songs in addition to their own material. The best bit has to be the drum solo at the end of Rope by Taylor Hawkins. I’ve seen him do this at ever gig and it still amazes me the speed he can do it and the length of time without getting tired or injured. It sounds like he has about 8 arms rather than two. Just mind blowing!
As this was Foo Fighters’ first tour back in the UK since the release of their new album, Conquer and Gold, they of course performed tracks from that album included the singles The Sky is a Neighbourhood & Run.
In addition, they played other classics including My Hero, Monkey Wrench, These Days, Walk, Wheels, Breakout and of course closed with Everlong. I admit, I was slightly disappointed they did not play Times Like These, which is a great and powerful sing along song. Plus there appeared to be no songs performed from their eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
My highlight, as always, was singing along to my favourite song, Best Of You, and joining in with the crowd on the famous extended “wooooaaaaoooo – wooooooaaaaaooooo” part that takes place at every Foo Fighters concert. Unfortunately the band were on a curfew so we couldn’t sing out as long as we hoped. However, the crowd made up for it by continuing to sing as we all walked out of the stadium.
The only criticism I would make is this show did feel slightly more rushed than previous shows. I understand why event organisers give band curfews due to the audience needing to access public transport plus sound disturbances to people living near the venue.
However for a band whose back catalogue is nearly a quarter of a century long, why don’t they start an hour earlier rather than having 3 support acts and several cover songs. Then they could fit in more Foo Fighters tracks into their set list. As a loyal Foo Fighters fan, I would be happy with a 5 hour set; have 2 and a half hours, then an interval, then another 2 and a half hours. Or even better, a 12 hour gig from midday to midnight… something to consider Mr Grohl?
