[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 11 November 2016]

 

Day 3: 8 March 2015

Day 3 and it’s Foo Fighters concert day! By this time, we did not have many places left to go, so we mostly spent our time in the city centre shopping and eating. The main shopping areas are at Murray Street and Hay Street and the two biggest department stores are Myer and David Jones. There aren’t any mega shopping malls like those in Singapore, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, so it’s all small boutique stores here in Perth.

In the afternoon, we stopped for tea break at Chocolateria San Churro, where we enjoyed some marvellous, hot churros dipped in dark and milk chocolate. Yum yum.

The Foo Fighters concert was held at nib Stadium, about 15 minutes’ walk away from our hostel. When I caught their previous show in 2008, it was held at Burswood Dome, an indoor arena with a capacity of about 20,000. The venue has since closed down in 2013 to make way for a car park. This time round, the Foos have upgraded their status to play at the open-air nib Stadium. In fact, with this concert, they broke attendance figures for the venue, with just under 32,000 people catching the show. That is no surprise as the Foos have established themselves as one of the best live acts in the world today, with sold out shows wherever they go.

We arrived early at 5:50pm because we had freestanding tickets and we wanted to secure the best spots. There were two opening acts – Delta Riggs and Rise Against. The Foos would only take the stage at 7:45pm, so we had plenty of time to check out the merchandise booth and get drinks. As usual, I couldn’t resist and ended up buying two of the tour tees. We managed to get pretty good standing spots by the right side of the stage, near to the catwalk platform.

At 7:45pm sharp, the lights dimmed and an outline of the Australian continent appeared on screen, with the classic FF logo superimposed on it. One by one (no pun intended) the members trotted out on stage to rapturous cheers and whistles. But when Dave Grohl finally appeared, clutching his signature Gibson Trini Lopez Pelham Blue guitar and sporting his trademark cheeky grin, the stadium erupted. He strutted along the catwalk, raring up the crowd (as if it needed any more extra motivation) before launching into Something From Nothing, the first single from their latest Sonic Highways album. Truth be told, it was a rather underwhelming start because the song is quite mellow and we were all so pumped up at that moment. The crowd would have gone mental if they had played All My Life as the opening number.

The mellow mood didn’t last long, as they amped it up with The Pretender next, a fist pumping anthem with a fiery climax, and the crowd went wild again. Being the seasoned pros that they are, the Foos left no stone unturned. They satisfied the fans by playing all their biggest hits – Learn To Fly, My Hero, Monkey Wrench, Times Like These, All My Life, Best Of You, Big Me. They only played three songs from their new album – the aforementioned Something From Nothing, Congregation and Outside. VW was disappointed that they didn’t play The Feast And The Famine, arguably the heaviest song from the new album. It would have been a riot.

Halfway through the show, the Foos took up position at the B-stage at the centre of the catwalk, so we were very close to them. It was a revolving stage that slowly spun around, so we had good views of all the band members. They played covers from three classic rock bands – Stay With Me by Faces, Let There Be Rock by AC/DC and Under Pressure by Queen.

They ended the night with the perennial fan favourite, Everlong, which also happens to be my favourite Foos song. By the time they left the stage at 10:10pm, the crowd was still raring for more but the 22 songs were all the Foos had to give. And give it all, they did. Without a doubt, the Foos are one of the best live rock acts in the world today, up there with MUSE and Coldplay. Do yourself a favour and watch them in concert, you won’t be disappointed. Fly overseas to catch them if you need to!

FOO FIGHTERS
nib Stadium, Perth, Australia
8 March 2015
Setlist:

1. Something From Nothing
2. The Pretender
3. Learn To Fly
4. Breakout
5. My Hero
6. Big Me
7. Congregation
8. Walk
9. Another One Bites The Dust (snippets for band introduction)
10. Cold Day In The Sun
11. Arlandria
12. Monkey Wrench
13. Skin And Bones
14. Times Like These
15. Stay With Me
16. Let There Be Rock
17. Under Pressure
18. All My Life
19. Outside
20. These Days
21. Best Of You
22. Everlong

 

Day 4: 9 March 2015

It’s time to bid adieu to Perth as we caught our 7:10pm Scoot flight back to Singapore. It was a short 4-day trip and I would say, the duration is just nice for Perth. It is a nice place to relax, chill out by the beach and take things slow. But if you’re looking for a place with good shopping, interesting street food and iconic landmarks, you won’t find much of it in Perth. However, the one important thing Perth has that Singapore doesn’t have is the four seasons. I haven’t been to Perth in the summer but I’ve heard that it can get really hot and unbearable, but visiting Perth in spring or autumn is very pleasant indeed, with sunny skies and cool temperatures but without the stifling heat and humidity.

Perth is also just a short 5 hour 10 minute flight away from Singapore and there is no time difference, so you can make a quick getaway without any jet lag. Furthermore, there are several budget airlines (Scoot, Jetstar, Tiger, Air Asia) plying the route so it isn’t too expensive to fly to Perth. For my Scoot flight, I paid only S$333.54 (without check-in baggage).

I suspect I will be back in Perth before long, most likely to catch another concert. Till the next time, farewell!