Foo Fighters Mt Smart

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Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by werdna »

Somehow Dave Grohl makes playing a concert to 35,000 people feel like something personal that you are celebrating with him. There is no sense of entitlement about the whole thing; he seemed to be genuinely surprised and delighted we were there to see his band, and he couldn't wait to play to us. That's his job, of course, and some days he must feel like he would rather be taking it easy at home or something. But you'd never guess that from the way he performs. No other front man I've seen comes out on stage so full of uncontrolled glee. He said the right amount about the Christchurch damage without sounding fake. He assumed that we know and love rock as much as he did, and treated us to some interesting covers when a band like his could have played there own stuff all night. He made us laugh, dance and sing. At one point he made us go quiet, all of us except for the inevitable Tourettes types who used that silent moment to introduce themselves with strange animal bellows. No offence if they were passing kidney stones, or a cow was giving birth. (You think it's unlikely that someone might bring a pregnant cow to a concert, but one of my friends used to inappropriately take livestock to social occasions.) Also, while I am getting this bro-mance with DG out of my system, I salute his unflinching dedication to using profane language: he said "f***" in every sentence last night, raising it to an almost lyrical level.

Let's get the guitar porn out of the way. All the guitars looked like recent builds but were classics: a handsome blue Les Paul Custom copy, a nice glitter '72 reissue tele, a non-reverse firebird, a black SG with three pickups, and another Les Paul Custom. Even better were the amps: plenty of Friedmans and Mesas. There was the full spectrum of low to high gain. And it all sounded really nice. Whoever says the sound at Mt Smart is crap should have been there in C section: crisp, defined and not too loud.

As for the covers, Detroit Rock City rocked, although a lot of the audience looked like they didn't know it. They knew Under Pressure, which was kind of ok, but as a song it was a Jenny Craig frozen dinner on a rock menu of full fat treats like Everlong and My Hero.

The FFs are a really tight band. They are so tight, they pulled off Let There Be Rock. Anyone who has tried to cover ACDC knows just how nailed down is their rhythm section: it's a machine. And the FFs were the same. They played it in D standard not E standard, but give them a break. DG isn't Mariah Carey, although they both have great hair.

A great night.
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by sirvill »

No blue 335 Trini Lopez? I hope they weren't all smashed up in the truck crash :(

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by GrantB »

Plenty of Blue Trini! And a gold one. The non reverse was a vintage Gibson, at least from where I was.

The covers were insanely good. New respect!

Taylor drummed his ass off.

Dave's guitar sound was fantastic, as was Chris'.

Pat was just smiling and relaxed the whole time, using many new Hofners in LP style.

Dave is a hard working mofo. Unlike werdna, I got a little tired of his muthaf*cking swearing.

Many moments of over indulgence but somehow they got away with it.

Great fun concert and a great crowd. I must say, a lot of pot was being smoked!
"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible god and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this nature he's destroying is this god he's worshipping." - Hubert Reeves

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by Molly »

werdna wrote:. They are so tight, they pulled off Let There Be Rock. Anyone who has tried to cover ACDC knows just how nailed down is their rhythm section: it's a machine. And the FFs were the same.

A great night.
Agreed. I loved that cover.

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by slash-ed »

As someone who has grown a bit tired of Dave "nicest man in rock" Grohl and his music of the past couple of years, I thought I should actually go to a FF concert to see once and for all what the deal was.

I thought it was a fairly self-indulgent affair. Every song had a long instrumental break, mostly featuring slow echoey lead work from Dave, rather than giving Chris Shiflett or Pat Smear the spotlight.

Dave Grohl certainly knows how to work a crowd... but I felt like he laid it on REALLY thick. I mean, two songs in:

I DON'T WANNA PLAY THIS FUCKIN' 2 HOUR SHIT.
I DON'T WANNA PLAY THIS FUCKIN' 2 HOUR 15 MINUTE SHIT.
I DON'T WANNA PLAY THIS FUCKIN' 2 HOUR 30 MINUTE SHIT.

...so he played this fuckin' 2 hour and 45 minute shit.

I dunno, not really my thing.

Funnily enough the covers were almost my favourite part of the evening. I felt like he was actually paying tribute to his influences and being a musician rather than spending more time kissing up to the crowd with his everyman hat on. Their cover of Tom Sawyer was awesome, though largely lost on the crowd. Same for Detroit Rock City.

All in all, I had a lot of fun but my opinion of Dave Grohl hasn't really changed and I am sadly not yet a converted fanboy.

Oh - and they had great tone! Though the sound wasn't great where I was standing.
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by jeremyb »

This is the greatest review in history. http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/li ... -brisbane/
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by Danger Mouse »

jeremyb wrote:This is the greatest review in history. http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/li ... -brisbane/

The comments below it are awesome too.
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by GrantB »

That's funny as...with a healthy dose of reality.
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by jeremyb »

It's like he's gone out of his way to be as offensive as possible, top marks!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by rickenbackerkid »

Fabulous review. I have a love/hate thing with the Foos.

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by jeremyb »

I don't hate them, I just find them bland and vanilla, I'm a caramel kind of guy.
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by Danger Mouse »

I don't hate them, I'm just disappointed they've never gone anywhere with their music. The Color and the Shape was one of my big 90's albums (and I still rate it), but each successive album has been much the same, only not as good.

Hamo questioned my dislike of their over-used formula a couple of weeks ago and I've been thinking about it since. I guess it boils down to the fact that most of the bands I like do end up finding that "winning formula" and start re-using and re-hashing once they do. However, normally it takes a few albums to get there, each album getting better and better, each one something to look forward to and anticipate. The Foos peaked early, so by their 2nd album they'd done their best work and it has been one disappointing album after another since. And they've been disappointing, not because I don't think they deserve their success, but because I guess I still really want to like them, but can't.
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by GrantB »

Colour and the Shape /foo fighters
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by hamo »

Danger Mouse wrote:I don't hate them, I'm just disappointed they've never gone anywhere with their music. The Color and the Shape was one of my big 90's albums (and I still rate it), but each successive album has been much the same, only not as good.

Hamo questioned my dislike of their over-used formula a couple of weeks ago and I've been thinking about it since. I guess it boils down to the fact that most of the bands I like do end up finding that "winning formula" and start re-using and re-hashing once they do. However, normally it takes a few albums to get there, each album getting better and better, each one something to look forward to and anticipate. The Foos peaked early, so by their 2nd album they'd done their best work and it has been one disappointing album after another since. And they've been disappointing, not because I don't think they deserve their success, but because I guess I still really want to like them, but can't.
All completely valid too. One thing that gets me though is that Dave Grohl gets kind of tarred with that brush, but to me he is still doing really interesting stuff, just away from the Foos. It's like he's saying, "here's my big MOR stadium rock radio band, but in between I'm going to release stuff like Probot and do Them Crooked Vultures and drum for QOTSA and generally arse around with my mates".

For me, the Foos kind of get a lifetime pass from me based on The Colour And The Shape and the handful of good singles since, and I don't need to buy their albums because right now there is more good music in the world than I can listen to in a lifetime. I get being disappointed with a band, but I never really get how that breeds antipathy or animosity (not really aiming that at you DM, just a general observation).
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Re: Foo Fighters Mt Smart

Post by jeremyb »

QOTSA are overrated IMHO, I saw them live with NIN and to be honest after a few songs we left, was just horrible!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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