Foo Fighters, Geelong Aus, 2022

Foo Fighters 

4th March 2022
GMHBA Stadium, Geelong, Australia.

Review by Darren Tilnak. Photography by Brett Schewitz & Rick Clifford.

With this review, due to live music being silenced for nearly two years and finally just kicking off again, we would like to respectively acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

Special thanks to the Victorian government initiative Always Live, here at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong we are proud to share this evening with the Foo Fighters with you all…

Tonight, along with rain and showers, first up featured Melbourne punk rockers The Meanies, and also from Melbourne, rising stars Amyl and the Sniffers who have been getting a strong following overseas… and of course the Foo Fighters.

It was wonderful to see two Melbourne bands supporting the Foo Fighters after nearly two years of no large stadium shows. Strutting her stuff with attitude and confidence – Amyl proved they are a band that commands the attention of the crowd. Starting off their set with three simple words “let’s have fun” and with that, they tore into their set with the vengeance of an act who have been in lockdown for so long.

Amy’s striking blonde hair, black pvc top and orange pants, strutted the stage and was reminiscent of Iggy Pop with attitude and larger than life stage presence as she sang ‘Security’. Watching the crowd being able to dance again was wonderful – you could see the love. Amy commented that there were a lot of mullets in the crowd, and seeing that and the colourful spectacle of people wearing ponchos and dancing in the rain it was rather clear that stadium rock is back no matter what the weather.

After a brief intermission and more heavy rain, Foo Fighters exploded onto the stage. Opening their set with “Times Like These”,  the words were so emotional and poignant in this time that one could feel the closeness in the crowd united in song and dance after nearly two years of emptiness.

Playing a range of songs over their career the Foos played songs off their new album including ‘Not My Son’ as well as old favourites such as ‘My Hero’ and ‘Walk’.

The band honoured the memory of promoter and scene maker Michael Gudinski by featuring a portrait of him adorning Taylor Hawkins bass drum, and dedicated an emotional ‘Everlong’ to him during the set. Also rather special, was as Dave introduced his band, each member treated us to small various solos on their respective instruments, but we were promised longer ones when they return again in November… Then to top that off, we were given a very special cover of Queen’s ‘Somebody to Love’, featuring Taylor Hawkins on vocals and Dave returning to the drums where they both smashed it. They had the crowd dancing and laughing as they did a cover of the Dee Gees *cough* Bee Gees classic “You should be dancing” to which Dave proclaimed them to be the best Australian band. It was magic.

The band ended the evening with ‘Monkey Wrench’ and there aforementioned ‘Everlong’ backed by a spectacular display of fireworks. As an observer it felt so good to be walking around with no restrictions and even seeing the police dancing along to the music in the audience, it suggested to me that we are returning to a familiar way of life. Thank you Foo Fighters for coming to Australia now for over 25 years, it’s so good to have you back as we start the party once again. See you again soon!

Were you there at the GMHBA Stadium for this magnificent comeback for Aussie live music? Or have you seen Foo Fighters perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Foo Fighters Setlist:

1. Times Like These
2. The Pretender
3. Learn to Fly
4. No Son of Mine
5. The Sky Is a Neighborhood
6. Rope
7. Breakout
8. Shame Shame
9. My Hero
10. These Days
11. Medicine at Midnight
12. Walk
13. You Should Be Dancing [Dee Gees / Bee Gees cover]
14. Somebody to Love [Queen cover]
15. All My Life
16. This Is a Call
17. Big Me
18. Best of You
19. Monkey Wrench
20. Everlong (Dedicated to Michael Gudinski)

_{Note: Frontier provided passes to Ambient Light to review and photograph this concert. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only. This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase a product using an affiliate link, Ambient Light will automatically receive a small commission at no cost to you.}

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