Live Review: Foo Fighters, Rise Against, The Delta Riggs

As we walked into the stadium past the small city of food stands, the bar across the plaza was playing Band On The Run.

It didn’t fail to trigger a wry smile. The Foo Fighters, despite herculean efforts like tonight’s show, will never be able to rewrite the wretched code that has been hard-wired into their DNA against their will by pop culture. Like Wings, they will forever be the result of a more important band dying.

Tonight, however, was about life and about the promise of rock’n’roll. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and his swarthy band of former punkers wailed and gnashed their teeth and pumelled song after song against the crowd like a huge guitar-shaped hammer against a sweaty pink anvil. Tens of thousands of bogans, hipsters, woo-girls, families, semi-famous local actors and white-collar punters roared into the brooding summer sky together, frightening the rain away. Terabytes of shitty footage was recorded via a sea of glittering smart phones bobbing up and down in the dark. It was magnificent. A true document of rock’s power combined with the annoying truth about modern audiences.

It began humbly enough with The Delta Riggs shuffling around with an ok set. Not much to report except sound levels were good, beer lines were being managed and the mood seemed pleasant.

Rise Against pushed back against the beige tide with a ball-busting nine-song set that included a neat Misfits cover (Astro Zombies) with My Chemical Romance refugee Gerard Way. Abrasive power-punk was perhaps going too far as a warm-up tactic, but it shook us out of a tepid Thursday evening stupor just in time. Plus they were very polite. We don’t believe they cussed once.

Any P4K cynic who wants to point out how dull and safe and dire the Foo is can point them to this review. Fuck that noise. This reviewer has seen hundreds of shows and can honestly say he enjoyed the hell out of it despite himself. Let’s just do this with highlights shall we? How ‘bout a ten-minute psych-out during Monkey Wrench? How ‘bout a rotating stage during a goddam KISS cover (Detroit Rock City)? How ‘bout Rage Against The Machine’s Brad fucking Wilk playing drums on a Van Halen cover (Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love)? How ‘bout Grohl melting hearts with an Under Pressure cover with Taylor Hawkins on vox? How ‘bout all of their studio albums being covered over a two-and-a-half-hour stadium masterpiece?

To those who went and did not receive a spiritual enema listening to thousands of people sing My Hero: fuck you, we’re not friends anymore.