On the Spot: Foo Fighters – Wasting Light on the Harbour Review

Our mate and crazy Fooies fan, Paul Lui who was one of the Lucky fans to attend to this massive and “money can`t buy” concert sent us his review…Check it out…It`s so cool:

The only time you will never pay an ounce of attention to the magnificent harbour view on Goat Island is when the Foo Fighters are performing in front of it. Last Thursday March 24, the band played one of their longest shows for a small 500-strong crowd of Australia’s biggest Foo Fighters fans and some lucky VIPs on Goat Island for over three hours, and nobody left disappointed.

Fans were treated to the new album, Wasting Light, in its entirety, almost without pause, played sequentially from its powerful opening track, Bridge Burning to the epic closing track, Walk. Each song was played with the ferocity that we have come to expect from the band and its 16 year tenure.

Known for mixing up their songs, the band played an extended outro of their second track off the album, Rope, with machine-gun snare and guitar work, before re-launching into one of their new tracks, Dear Rosemary, a song which they collaborated with Dave Grohl’s childhood hero Bob Mould (from Husker Du) on the new record.

A starry-eyed crowd turned into frenzy as the band went on to unleash their hard-rock/metal track White Limo, a song many have expressed as their favourite on the new album. The hypnotising guitar riff and heavy drum backing accentuated by Dave’s signature screaming and head-banging gave a true snapshot of the direction of the new album. Raw, bold, honest and above all else, real rock and roll.

The remaining songs on the new album all deserve honourable mentions in their own right, in order, Arlandria, These Days, Back + Forth (which is rumoured to be the next single), Matter Of Time, Miss The Misery, I Shoulda Known and finally, Walk. Dave has mentioned before that the Wasting Light album “plays like a set-list” but in my personal opinion, also plays out like a collection of unreleased greatest hits. It’s hard to fault any of the songs at all, or to find a “weak link”. Dave closed off the new songs by yelling “and that’s the new record!” at the conclusion of Walk, before taking a sip of his beer and adding “you’re welcome.”

After a moment’s pause, the Foos catapulted into a long list of their best hits, beginning with All My Life, which featured an unexpected extended bridge, again portraying the constant evolution of their live performances. Blasting through hit after hit, including Times Like These, Generator, Learn To Fly and My Hero, the crowd never stopped bouncing around in what can only be described as excitement in its purest form. Dave shared the same sentiment, having kicked off his shoes in the second song, and proclaiming “I’m never gonna wear shoes to a gig again!”

During the interlude song, Up In Arms, a lucky fan got up on stage after Dave said that he would dedicate the song “to the guy who looks exactly like me”. Following a brief sculling contest (which the fan, Jim, won I might add), Dave proceeded to serenade his new “bearded girlfriend”. Having played 17 songs already, little did the crowd know that they weren’t even halfway through the show.

The hits kept coming, Long Road to Ruin, Big Me (nobody threw any mentos, fortunately), Cold Day in the Sun, Stacked Actors (which featured a grinning Dave running onto one of the balconies, swinging his guitar around like a battle-axe above the crowd), Skin and Bones, Monkey Wrench (the ending of which had Taylor smashing out a mini-drum solo, a springboard he used to launch into the next song), Hey Johnny Park and finally closing off the main set with crowd-pleaser, Everlong.

The band stepped back onto the stage for their encore performance, after much yelling, screaming and clapping. “If you wanted us to play more songs,” Dave said, taking a sip of beer, “all you had to do was say so!” The Foos then kicked off their supercharged encore set with an explosive version of The Pretender, with Dave playing a mini guitar-solo on top of the rhythmic hard-rock hits. Instead of a normal 4 or 5 song encore, fans were spoilt with 13 (yes, thirteen) extra songs. Dave even threw in some unexpected gems, including their B-side “Butterflies”, a couple of their cover songs, Darling Nikki and Young Man Blues, and even one of their old songs, Aurora (which brought this fan to the verge of tears). The only reason why they stopped at thirteen was because of the venue curfew, rounding off the night with old favourite, This Is a Call.

Words cannot describe just how incredible and monumental the harbour gig was, blowing all preconceived expectations right out of the water. Foo Fighters fans will be talking about this gig for years to come – many friendships have be forged out of the heat and sweat of that mosh-pit, and there is even a “Foo friends from the Goat Island gig” Facebook group that has popped up. I am doubtful that I will ever be lucky enough to attend such a historic or mind-blowing concert ever again. Good thing an edited version will be able to be watched on Channel V this Saturday, as it is magic that has to be relived over and over to be believed.

Foo Fighters Forever.

Here enjoy some postcards of the venue:

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Thanks Paul…and Keep Rocking, because the Fooies will be back at the end of the year and apparently they won`t come alone, because Jack Black`s Tenacious D might be the opening band for them!!

…And remember as we previously reported:

FOO FIGHTERS WASTING LIGHT ON THE HARBOUR WORLD PREMIERE

• On Channel [V] and the Triple M Network Saturday 2 April at 11.00am
• On MAX Saturday 2 April at 8.30pm

Do you have photos or wanna share your Fooies experience or another concert story-review? just sent us an email to spotlightreport@gmail.com and we will post it!

Note. All the photos by Paul Lui