That’s beside the point though, the point I’m trying to make is that this place is immense, and Foo Fighters sold it out on two nights. There was not an empty seat in there, an impressive feat for a stadium concert.

I missed out on the first support act Kaki King, but if Dave Grohl’s praise is anything to go by, she is good. She appeared on stage to play Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners later on in the night and was quite impressive, with surprising dexterity on the guitar.

The Mess Hall were fantastic, and not knowing their music didn’t stop me from enjoying them. They certainly make a lot of noise for two Australian guys; it’s quite a feat to fill a stadium with sound when all you have is a drum set and an electric guitar, but these boys did it with passion and vigour.

Foo Fighters are an excessively popular band, if ticket sales are anything to go by. The camaraderie felt between fans and the group, and within the group itself, can be accredited to Dave Grohl. Appearing on stage with long hair and a grungy beard, he took it upon himself to walk down the runway splitting the mosh, then literally sprinted back to the front, hair careening behind him, to launch into Let It Die. They definitely know how to put on a show.

The flow of songs was fantastic, playing a hard rock set of their best tracks such as The Pretender and All My Life before turning it down a notch. This is where the showmanship comes in with a red lit stage being lowered from the roof onto the end of the runway, where the band and some back up musicians moved to play an acoustic set featuring crowd favourites My Hero, Everlong and Skin and Bones. There are moments when it felt like the Dave Grohl show, especially when he spoke to the audience, although he was down-to-earth and funny.

Foo Fighters songs all sound familiar, and sadly by the end of the show everything started to sound the same and I had no idea what they had or hadn’t played. They also were on stage for almost three hours, with a five song encore which didn’t seem that necessary. The encore featured older material which they claim they hadn’t played in ten years, so Sydney got something special. The band themselves are truly talented; they own their instruments like no other and command attention individually as well as a band. A big up to Taylor Hawkins whose drum solo made my jaw drop – the man has fluid wrist techniques.

The setlist could have done with a bit of editing, but fans definitely got their money’s worth, and at the end of the day, they’re the ones who buy the tickets to fill out these enormous arena shows.

Photo Courtesy of Auddun and Licensed by Creative Commons.