The show was dubbed the "Inaugural Show" at Georgia State Stadium in Downtown Atlanta. Georgia State Stadium, of course, is the former "Turner Field." Before the stadium being purchased and subsequently re-named by Georgia State University, Turner Field hosted some pretty impressive concerts in its own right. The most significant names include George Strait, The Rolling Stones, and Dave Matthews Band, as well as acts such as Steve Miller Band, Scotty McCreery, Weezer, and even the surviving members of Run DMC playing concerts at the conclusion of select Braves games. I didn't go to any of those shows, but I'm sure they were great.
Me being a Georgia State Student that is full of school spirit, as well as a fan of Rock music, it was a match made in Heaven. I bought a ticket in the upper deck, to the right of the stage for $29 on Ticketmaster which ended up being a little over $40 after fees. Parking prices were pretty steep, so I decided I would take a complimentary shuttle provided by the school. That didn't work out the way I hoped it would, as I ended up having to walk a mile to get back to the train station, but I think it was still well worth it.
I arrive at the venue around 6:20 pm, which allowed me plenty of time to walk around a bit and eventually find my seat before the opening band was scheduled to begin their set at 7 pm. The stadium, now used for Georgia State Panthers Football, had only been open on the lower level throughout the inaugural season. Therefore this was my first time being in the upper deck of that stadium since the summer of 2016 when my mom and I went to about a dozen games at Turner Field despite not being Braves fans and sitting in the upper deck every time. I even had to go up the same stairs I walked up to get to my seats at those Baseball games, which was a bit of pleasant nostalgia, as weird as that might sound. The escalators to get to the upper levels were not in use that particular evening; my mom would have been displeased with that had she decided to go to the show with me.
The band opening for The Foo Fighters was a band out of Derby, UK called The Struts. You might think you haven't heard of them, but trust me when I say you have heard at least two of their songs if you listen to Modern Rock radio. Their singles "Kiss This" and "Could Have Been Me" receive relatively regular airtime. As good as those songs are, some of the songs they don't play on the radio might be even better. Songs such as "Put Your Hands Up," "Put Your Money On Me," as well as their newest song "Primadonna Like Me" were terrific tunes that were a joy to hear.
The Struts are fronted by Luke Spiller, who could very well be described as the closest thing to a living Freddy Mercury. I'm not saying he is as good as Freddy, or that the Struts will sell as many albums as Queen, but if you hear his vocal range, and pay attention to his mannerisms on stage and interaction with the crowd, a comparison could be made. To make sure I wasn't crazy in thinking this, I did some Googling and found this interesting article from The New York Times about Luke from 2016.
I thought about giving a "track by track" review of the Foo Fighters set, but then I realized that would take forever to write, and you could probably get plenty that from people who know what the heck they're doing when it comes to reviewing concerts. I think I'm better off just describing my highlights from the show, which involved much more than just the songs being played.
Going into the show, I could be best described as reasonably casual Foo Fighters fan. "The Pretender" is by far my favorite song by them. If you grew up in the 2000s as I did, you would know how big of a deal that song was when it came out. I couldn't tell you how many times a 12-13-year-old Taylor rocked out to that song either after school or during weekends, and hearing it live caused me to lose control a bit. No, I don't mean I got emotional, I mean I started cheering wildly and somehow ended up standing on my chair shouting all of the words to the song.
Another thing I feel adds to the experience of going to a concert is the togetherness of the crowd. There was plenty of this togetherness throughout the night which included several moments where the majority of the crowd either used the flashlight on their cell phone or went old-school and flicked their lighters to light up the venue even further. The most interesting occurrence was during "My Hero" when Dave Grohl came out and started playing acoustically on the very end of a runway-type extension of the stage. Everyone had a light on, we were all singing the chorus with Dave, and then halfway through the song, the rest of the band joined in, but the phone flashlights stayed on, and the crowd noise did not die down in the slightest.
Going into the show, I could be best described as reasonably casual Foo Fighters fan. "The Pretender" is by far my favorite song by them. If you grew up in the 2000s as I did, you would know how big of a deal that song was when it came out. I couldn't tell you how many times a 12-13-year-old Taylor rocked out to that song either after school or during weekends, and hearing it live caused me to lose control a bit. No, I don't mean I got emotional, I mean I started cheering wildly and somehow ended up standing on my chair shouting all of the words to the song.
Another thing I feel adds to the experience of going to a concert is the togetherness of the crowd. There was plenty of this togetherness throughout the night which included several moments where the majority of the crowd either used the flashlight on their cell phone or went old-school and flicked their lighters to light up the venue even further. The most interesting occurrence was during "My Hero" when Dave Grohl came out and started playing acoustically on the very end of a runway-type extension of the stage. Everyone had a light on, we were all singing the chorus with Dave, and then halfway through the song, the rest of the band joined in, but the phone flashlights stayed on, and the crowd noise did not die down in the slightest.
The heart of the setlist included other great Foo Fighters hits from years gone by, songs from their new album "Concrete And Gold," and even covers of some very famous classic rock tunes that gave other members of the band an opportunity to showcase themselves. The covers included Alice Cooper's "Under My Wheels" "You're The One I Want," and the band's keyboard player playing John Lennon's "Imagine" while Dave sang the words to Van Halen's "Jump," which I thought was a bit weird. I would have just preferred to have just heard a proper cover of Imagine, but that's just me. This was followed by Dave introducing Pat Smear to the audience. For whatever reason, I had initially forgotten that Pat was a part of the Foo Fighters. I know he did some work with Nirvana towards the end, and of course, he was the guitarist of one of my favorite bands, The Germs, but then when he was introduced, I had one of those "oh yeah" moments. Then with the cameras and lights panned onto him, Pat lead the band into a cover of the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop." The best part of this classic rock medley, however, was a cover of "Under Pressure" that featured Dave Grohl playing drums, as well as Taylor Hawkins sharing vocal duties with Luke Spiller from The Struts. This was when the similarities between Mercury and Spiller were brought to the forefront during this cover in my eyes.
In addition to how great the songs sounded, Dave Grohl's stage presence was on-point like always. Funny banter such as stories from the old days, making fun of his bandmates' fashion senses, bringing a fan on stage to play a song with them for apparently the second time on that tour, dubbing him "Pierce the dual offender" and jokingly yelling at him to get off the stage when he saw him talking a selfie after the song kept me laughing in between songs all night. There was also a pretty funny bit before the encore where a camera showed Dave backstage telling the crowd to go home, then agreeing to play one more song, then agreeing to play two more songs, then finally agreeing to three play more songs. All of that was pretty funny, but it all pales in comparison to what I thought was the best part of the show. Halfway through the set, Dave announced to the crowd that he was only going to refer to the audience as "big ass stadium" for the rest of the night, and he kept true to his word. He must have used the phrase "big ass stadium" about 20 more times that night. It got to the point where the official Twitter account for the stadium changed their display name (not to be confused with their handle, which is still @GSUStadium as of today) to "'Big A$$ Stadium - Dave Grohl.'"
In addition to how great the songs sounded, Dave Grohl's stage presence was on-point like always. Funny banter such as stories from the old days, making fun of his bandmates' fashion senses, bringing a fan on stage to play a song with them for apparently the second time on that tour, dubbing him "Pierce the dual offender" and jokingly yelling at him to get off the stage when he saw him talking a selfie after the song kept me laughing in between songs all night. There was also a pretty funny bit before the encore where a camera showed Dave backstage telling the crowd to go home, then agreeing to play one more song, then agreeing to play two more songs, then finally agreeing to three play more songs. All of that was pretty funny, but it all pales in comparison to what I thought was the best part of the show. Halfway through the set, Dave announced to the crowd that he was only going to refer to the audience as "big ass stadium" for the rest of the night, and he kept true to his word. He must have used the phrase "big ass stadium" about 20 more times that night. It got to the point where the official Twitter account for the stadium changed their display name (not to be confused with their handle, which is still @GSUStadium as of today) to "'Big A$$ Stadium - Dave Grohl.'"
All in all, it was a good night for me and a great way to kick off "warm weather season" which I have come to dread in a way because I'm much more of a winter person, but warm weather events like an outdoor concert and Baseball games just can't be beat. This more than likely won't be the last time I write about a concert this spring/summer so make sure to stay tuned to see what else I get up to! And also, go buy The Struts new album when it comes out because they are going to play a big part in the future of Rock and Roll in my opinion.
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