After my buddy Buzzard and I planned our trip to Vancouver to see Sturgill Simpson we looked to see what else was happening that weekend, and as luck would have it. The Foo Fighters were playing the following night. So hell ya we decided why not checkout that show as well. So it was three shows in three night. Small (Night Court at the Green Auto), Medium (Sturgill at Pacific Coliseum) and Large (Foo Fighters at BC Place Stadium).
This would be my fourth time seeing the Foo Fighters in concert and I'm just realizing now that every time I have seen them in concert it has been in a different city Calgary Edge Fest in 1998, Montreal in 2003, Edmonton in 2005 and now Vancouver 2026.
I was surprised the Foo were playing stadiums on this tour as I guess I didn't realize how popular the band really is. BC Place was fucking packed, my guess is around 50,000 people, but then they weren't playing Seattle so maybe that had something to do with it, but then from what I have heard, they drew the same size of crowd in Edmonton, so yes they are that big.
I haven't really been a big fan myself of the band since there first three albums, buying there albums here and there in the past twenty years. But I did buy their latest album Your Favorite Toy, which I thought was alright, but nothing special. What did excite me about this line up was that Queens Of The Stone Age were one of the opening acts.
We got to the venue early hoping to beat the line up to get in and it worked, we had no problems getting in, no line up at the gate we went to. I didn't want to be stuck in some stupid line up and miss QOTSA. We got in early enough to catch the first act of the evening.
As you can see from the above photo, it was a beautiful Sunday in Vancouver therefore the roof of BC Place Stadium was open.
The first act of the evening was a band called Gouge Away from Florida, apparently been around since 2012. I had never heard of them before but here they were playing a stadium opening for the Foo Fighters. Their music is best described as hardcore music, not what I'm into. They were extremely loud with a lady lead singer (Christine Michelle) that could scream with the best of them. Their half hour set was long enough for me. Good on them though for getting the chance to play a stadium.
Next up and the main reason I wanted to go to the show was Queens of the Stone Age. This was my second time seeing them live, the first time being in 2005, so it had been a long time. Again, I haven't bought any of their albums in years but have always been a fan. By the time they hit the stage the stadium was really filling up, I think a lot of people were very excited about seeing them.
They opened their set with "You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire" from the Songs For The Deaf album. That's one of their albums I do own and really like. They actually played four songs from that one, the last three songs of the set were from said album "Go With The Flow", "No One Knows" and "A Song For The Dead". A couple from the 2007 album Era Vulgaris "Make It With Chu" and "Sick, Sick, Sick". There were quite a few songs I wasn't familiar with, yet still thought they kicked ass. What really surprised me was that there were no songs from the Rated R album, especially the hit song "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer", so that was disappointing. Lead singer Josh Homme sounded great on vocals and guitar and the rest of the band were great too.
Josh smoking during their set, sure wish I could have had a smoke.
After a short break it was now time for the Foo Fighters who are famous for playing three hour shows, which is exactly what they did. I guess when you have been around for 31 years and released 12 albums, so you have a lot of music to play. I'll admit there were a whole bunch of songs I just didn't know. But some of the older ones I really got into. Songs like the openers "All My Life" and "Times Like These" from their 2002 album One By One. It was awesome to hear some from their debut album "Big Me", "This Is A Call" and "Exhausted". The three songs "My Hero", "Monkey Wrench" and closer "Everlong" they did from the 1997 album The Colour And The Shape seemed to get the biggest sing-alongs, especially "My Hero".
There was a medley of covers, them being songs from bands that members of Foo Fighters have played in before joining Foo. One of them songs being The Wallflowers song "One Headlight" apparently keyboardist Rami Jaffee played in that band. Also in the medley was the Germs song "Manimal" in which guitarist Pat Smear was a member of. The other songs I wasn't familiar with.
At one point in the show lead singer Dave Grohl and newest member of the Foo Fighters drummer Iian Rubin switched instruments for a song, I don't recall now what song it was, but Iian was great on guitar and it was cool to see Dave hammering the shit out of the drums.
There were a whole lot of songs I didn't know during the three hour show. I feel like three hours is just too long for a Foo Fighters show, shorten it to a couple hours and you have a kick as rock n' roll show. That and three hours of being yelled at by Dave Grohl, man that guy is a ball of energy, just full on through out the whole show, and being called a motherfucker for three hours, a term of endearment coming for Dave. All and all it was a fun night out. Good times!!!
