Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2015
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Opening act(s): Royal Blood
Headlining act: Foo Fighters
Royal Blood Setlist:
Come On Over
You Can Be So Cruel
Figure It Out
Little Monster
One Trick Pony
Ten Tonne Skeleton
Loose Change
Out Of The Black / Iron Man [Snippet]
Foo Fighters Setlist:
Everlong
Monkey Wrench
Learn To Fly
Something From Nothing
The Pretender
Big Me
Congregation
Walk
Introductions w/ Van Halen Medley:
–I’m The One
–Panama
–Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love
–Everybody Wants Some!!
Cold Day In The Sun
Skin And Bones
My Hero
Outside
Breakout
Under Pressure
Miss You
All My Life
Times Like These
White Limo
Arlandria
These Days
This Is A Call
Best Of You
Let There Be Rock
Notes:
- First time seeing “Something From Nothing,” “Big Me,” “Congregation,” the Van Halen medley, “Outside,” “Under Pressure,” “Miss You,” and “Let There Be Rock” live.
- Dave Grohl was seated on his Guitar Throne for the majority of the show due to his broken leg.
- Grohl told the story of his broken leg prior to the band performing the slow version of “Big Me.”
- “Skin And Bones” and “My Hero” were performed acoustically with just Grohl on guitar & Rami on accordion.
- Grohl & Taylor Hawkins sang on the band’s cover of Queen & David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.”
- Taylor Hawkins sang lead on the band’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You.”
- A cover of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock” closed the show.
- According to setlist.fm, the original setlist included “Have It All” and “Aurora,” neither of which were played. However, they were replaced by “Under Pressure,” “Miss You,” and “These Days.”
- Show started at 8:15 and ended at 10:50.
- Show #13 at this venue; first since August 28, 2014.
Videos:
Review:
My first Foo Fighters concert in 2011 was a life changing experience.
During a time when other favorite bands of mine were performing sub par, 90 minute or less shows, Foo Fighters came in and played non-stop for damn near three hours. That was the final step in them becoming my third favorite band of all time. I anxiously awaited my next chance to see them live.
Here we are, nearly four years later, and that chance had finally arrived. They were touring in support of their most recent album, 2014’s Sonic Highways. While the album didn’t quite reach the highs that Wasting Light reached, it’s a great album and I was looking forward to hearing several songs from it live.
I bought tickets for this show way back in November of 2014, and I bought the very first two that popped up. The band had sold out Wrigley Field in less than a day, so I wasn’t about to be sold out of this show. My seats were in the far left section, Row SS.
But a couple of weeks before this show came around, some seats in the center section opened up, so I exchanged them.
I always get nostalgia when I walk into the amphitheater in St. Louis. I’ve seen more concerts here than anywhere else, and that includes milestone shows such as my very first concert (Def Leppard in 1996). My last visit was for Def Leppard in 2014, and I’ll be returning again on September 4 for my 40th Def Leppard show.
We took our seats, said hi to my mom and her friend a few sections over, and then opener Royal Blood hit the stage shortly before 7:00. They’re a two person band from England and I wasn’t enjoying them. Rain was threatening and it was surprisingly cool outside (only in the 60’s – this is St. Louis in August, right???).
They ended around 7:40 and a huge Foo Fighters curtain was dropped in front of the stage.
During a bathroom run, Brittany had overheard a security guard say the Foo Fighters show would start at 8:15. So the countdown began.
Once 8:15 hit, the stage went dark, and Dave Grohl started strumming the intro to “Everlong.” When the full band kicked in, the curtain dropped and was pulled up into the lighting rig: EXACTLY the same way Def Leppard opens their shows. They wasted no time between songs as they went straight into “Monkey Wrench,” and then right into “Learn To Fly” without taking a break.
The first new song of the night, “Something From Nothing,” followed. Then came one of my favorite songs of theirs, “The Pretender” that really got the crowd going.
Dave’s throne moved forward on the stage, resting on the catwalk and he was left by himself. He was strumming the chords to “Big Me” while telling the story of his broken leg, complete with videos and a slideshow! He talked about getting the X-ray of the broken leg, and said “I immediately turned it into a t-shirt design, which you’ll find at our merchandise stand on the way out to the parking lot. Someone’s gotta pay for that shit!” It was hilarious, of course.
After the story, the band joined him for a slow version of “Big Me,” which was followed by the second new song of the night, “Congregation.” Then came “Walk” from my favorite album of theirs, Wasting Light. I was hoping to hear several more songs from that album before the night was through.
Dave started to introduce the band after that, starting with guitarist Chris Shiflett. He played a short little riff, causing Grohl to give him shit, so then he started shredding Van Halen’s “I’m The One.” That got a big rise out of the crowd, so they kept going with the Van Halen snippets during the rest of the introductions… “Panama,” “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” and “Everybody Wants Some!!” followed.
After drummer Taylor Hawkins got his introduction, the band played “Cold Day In The Sun” with him on lead vocals.
Dave took a seat on a regular chair at the end of the catwalk with an acoustic guitar and played “Skin And Bones” acoustically. Keyboardist Rami joined him with an accordion for the end of the song and stayed out there for an acoustic version of “My Hero,” which had the crowd singing every word. Dave also had all of the stage lights turned off and left it up to the crowd to light up the place. So there were thousands of cell phones being held in the air with their lights on, which was a crazy site to see. In the midst of that, I looked up to see a light streaking through the sky, thinking it was a plane from the nearby airport. But it was actually a shooting star.
The rest of the band returned to the stage, which was left fairly dark as the music slowly began to build. Eventually bassist Nate Mendel started strumming the intro to “Outside,” one of my favorite songs from Sonic Highways. The song was jammed out quite a bit, allowing Shiflett and guitarist Pat Smear to have some dueling solos.
Grohl called out a woman in the box seats for covering her ears when he was screaming earlier in the show and dedicated the next song, which would have plenty more screaming, to her. That songs was “Breakout,” and he had me cracking up when he sang “one of these days I’ll chase your fuckin’ Honda Odyssey drivin’ ass down… I got one too, I got one too!”
That song really had the crowd going, which caused Dave to say that the “keg party” vibe was there. That lead to two covers, the first being Queen & David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.” Dave and Taylor took turns singing and the crowd was really going.
Next up was the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You,” which once again had Taylor singing lead.
That went straight into “All My Life,” another song that had the crowd rocking and singing loud as hell.
The band stayed with the One By One album for a full electric version of “Times Like These.” I was happy to see it played that way, since it seems to be played half acoustically more often than not.
They played straight through, opting not to fake their way through an encore.
I wasn’t sure what would come next, aside from one song, so I was thrilled when the band returned to the Wasting Light album for not one, not two, but three songs. It all started with one of my favorites, “White Limo,” which of course went straight into “Arlandria” as it does on the album.
“These Days” followed before they went all the way back to the first album for “This Is A Call.”
Dave polled the audience after that for if they wanted a Foo Fighters song or a ‘key party’ song. Knowing what Foo Fighters song would probably be played, I voted for a keg party song. But the Foos won, so Dave compromised with the crowd…
Foo Fighters song first, then a key party song.
Not surprisingly, “Best Of You” was played next. It has never been one of my favorite songs of theirs, but I still enjoyed it.
Then came the real end to the party… A face melting cover of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock,” which was fucking amazing.
Two hours and 35 minutes really flew by as the concert came to an end at 10:50.
Once again, the Foo Fighters went above and beyond and put on a spectacular show. I’ve seen a lot of bands live, and it’s hard to top what these guys do on a nightly basis. Especially from a value for money standpoint, as their shows and merchandise are all reasonably priced and you get far more from them than you get from other, more expensive artists.
I won’t mention any names…
Much like after my first Foo Fighters show in 2011, I was immediately left anxious for my next chance to see them live. Hopefully it’ll be a shorter wait than this one.
Media Review:
Dave Grohl rules from throne at Foo Fighters’ St. Louis show
Score one in the fan endearment department for Foo Fighters, which packed nearly 17,000 fans into Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre Wednesday night for a near-sold-out show.
The rockers could’ve easily spent the summer off the road, allowing frontman Dave Grohl to kick back and recover from a broken leg suffered in a fall from the stage in June during a concert in Sweden.
Instead, after canceling the rest of its European dates, the band held onto the U.S. leg of the tour, with Grohl majestically seated in a throne decorated with spinning lights.
At no point did the throne limit Grohl, who was boisterous throughout the nearly three-hour concert. If anything, it seemed to fuel him. He often kicked his good leg and even stood at one point for a little dance.
The results were a ferocious rock show — not that Foo Fighters would have it any other way.
Grohl devoted a whole segment to his leg: “I don’t always sit in this contraption. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you would keep forever. Maybe I will. It’s pretty badass.”
He relayed the story of his fall and how he finished the Sweden show with a paramedic holding his leg. He also shared X-rays, photos from his hospital bed and the sketch he drew imagining his throne.
“Everlong,” a banger from the band’s 1997 album “The Colour and the Shape,” kicked off the exhilarating evening. “It’s gonna be a long (expletive) night,” Grohl exclaimed. He promised the band would play until it was kicked off the stage and pledged to touch on every Foo Fighters album.
“We’ve got 20 years. We’ve got a lot of songs to do tonight,” said Grohl. The band celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer.
Grohl and band members Pat Smear (guitar), Taylor Hawkins (drums), Nate Mendel (bass) and Chris Shiflett (guitar) were in peak form during a searing performance highlighting Foo Fighters’ career, including “Monkey Wrench,” “Learn to Fly,” “The Pretender,” “White Limo” and “Congregation.”
He dedicated “Big Me,” a love song, to his road crew for their ability to pull off his throne. He performed the song on a dark stage, for full romantic effect.
Grohl sat on a stool for acoustic versions of “Skin and Bones” and “My Hero” on guitar.
The band heavily teased Van Halen covers during its introductions, and Hawkins’ lead vocals were nicely spotlighted on “Cold Day in the Sun,” along with Rolling Stones’ “Miss You” and Queen/David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” though it was always nice to get back to Grohl.
The talkative frontman joked that fans in the lawn seats were in a different ZIP code and asked if anyone saw Foo Fighters play Mississippi Nights in the band’s early days.
As the night came to an end, Grohl informed fans there would be no encore — no leaving the stage and pretending they wouldn’t come back out. “We just play until the show is over,” he said before wrapping with “This is a Call,” “Best of You” and a cover of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock.”
Let there be rock, indeed.
By Kevin C. Johnson @ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2015
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