Foo Fighters

No NZ Music Month T-Shirts, or 'Poi-E' cover, just balls-out rock'n'roll.

The lights go down and the gladiators emerge, sending the 12,000 people in the sold out Vector arena into a primal frenzy. Then appears the lion, Dave Grohl… The crowd’s energy surging to the peak of nuclear as this rock’n’roll beast sizes up the entire venue, commanding the respect of all in his presence.

Yep it really was that epic. Every time this guy spoke (which was often, and sometimes at length) he was received with the attention of an 8 year old child trying to work out how David Copperfield managed to walk through the Great Wall of China… only with WAY more yelling and applause.

Then there was the band… tight as you like, and exercising a wide range of artistic license over their hits throughout the night. Take for example the drawn out blues interlude during ‘This is a call’, or the full-on heavy metal rendition of ‘Stacked Actors’, including guitar battle between Dave Grohl and lead guitarist Chris Shiflett and an almighty drum solo from Taylor Hawkins.

The night also included a triangle solo from accompanying percussionist, Drew Hester. “Other bands may have f**cking pyrotechnics, but do they have a f**cking triangle player!?” mused Grohl as he introduced the 8 band members – including original Foos guitarist, Pat Smear – on the circular stage at the centre of the arena.

It was on this stage, that the Foo's donned all acoustic instruments for about half their performance. At one point this stage acted like a campfire for NZ’s biggest ever sing-along to ‘My Hero’. It was like soccer hooliganism, hold the soccer… and the hooliganism, just arms chucked around the nearest strangers as the crowd unified in its full-volume participation in the legendary chorus… “there goes my hero, he’s ordinary!!”

Well done the Foos for bringing this hugely diverse Auckland crowd together in a warm, lively contrast to the drizzly darkness lurking outside the stadium doors.