It's a common enough move, asking the crowd to raise their hand if it's the first time they've seen the band. Most bands, however, don't respond to first-timers like this.
"Sixteen f---ing years, and you couldn't make it to one show?" frowned Foo Fighters' front man and all-round great guy Dave Grohl. "That's ok. We used to suck and now we tear ass every night!"
At some point over the last decade Dave Grohl realised that he was never going to surpass the revolutionary cultural impact he made as one-third of Nirvana. Instead, he was going concentrate on turning the Foo Fighters into the most entertaining arena rock band of their generation. Judging on last night's stellar performance at Rogers Arena, he has succeeded spectacularly in his quest. And had a fine time doing it.
From the moment Grohl first put his foot up on a monitor – about five seconds after the band appeared on stage – it was achingly apparent that Vancouver was in the presence of a bona fide rock star. He may be a fine songwriter, drummer, singer and guitarist, but Grohl's finest talent is his ability to play the crowd. Over the Foo Fighter's mammoth two-hour, 40-minute set he effortlessly walked the tightrope between the broad gestures necessary to reach the back of the arena and the sly smile and self-effacing asides that proved his sense of humour is keeping any conceivable diva ego safely tucked away.
Every moment had something new to cheer, dance or laugh at. Grohl threw in a Chuck Berry duck walk during "The Pretender." He sparked the first of many sing-alongs from the mixing desk for "My Hero." He dedicated "Breakout" to "the old Foo Fighters fans" and conducted the crowd as they sang the intro. During "Stacked Actors," Grohl and guitarist Chris Shiflett performed duelling solos at opposite ends of the arena. Shiflett won the musical battle, but Grohl pulled out the trump card, as a previously hidden podium lifted him four metres into the air.
The choicest selections from the Foo's back catalogue came during the show's second half. "Monkey Wrench" sent a torrent of crowd surfers over the barriers, even after Grohl instructed the lighting engineer to plunge the arena into darkness for a lighters-in-the-air moment of silence. A cover of Pink Floyd's "In The Flesh" was an unexpected bonus, while the grand finale of "All My Life" was suitably immense.
The fun didn't stop there. Appearing on the big screens after leaving the stage, Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins milked cheers and generated laughs while silently speculating through the medium of mime how many songs they were going to play during the encore. The correct answer, six, kicked off when Grohl, armed only with an acoustic guitar, appeared at the mixing desk position and delivered stripped down versions of "Wheels" and "The Best of You" directly to the back of the arena.
The rest of the band reappeared midway through "Times Like These," and after a faithful rendition of Tom Petty's "Breakdown" that saw Grohl leave the stage for a wander through the crowd and a slow dance with a lucky young lady, the night ended on a suitable high note with the Foo Fighters' greatest masterpiece, "Everlong."
Inspirationally brilliant from first note to last, the Foo Fighters, and Dave Grohl in particular, did the near-impossible: combining a polished, well-rehearsed arena concert with the spontaneity of a handful of buddies cranking out a bunch of tunes in a garage. For all his showmanship, it would appear that Grohl was genuinely having a fabulous time too.
"There are two things Vancouver has more of than anywhere else," he insisted, trying and failing to muster a brief moment of decorum. "This city has more weed and hot chicks than anywhere I've been in my life."
