Next up were the very entertaining and much loved Tenacious D. I was personally looking forward to seeing Jack Black and Kyle Gass in action for the first time and hoped they would be performing a “stadium rock” style set with a full band. My wish was granted and they put on a rocking set, opening with Kielbasa – featuring the heartfelt lyric “My butt cheeks is warm”. Straight after the opening song came to an end, Jack Black began the first of several onslaughts towards band mate Kyle Gass by accusing him of “clamming up” one too many times. This led to Kyle quitting the band and he stormed off stage in a huff. One audience member saw this as their big shot to fill Kyle’s shoes and rushed the stage. Security were a little slow to react, so the bloke (sportinga long brown mullet) managed to get in a couple of quick harmonies with Jack Black before being swept off stage and kicked out of the stadium. One and a half minutes after quitting, Kyle returns – apologies and hugs ensued. The quick breakup being an all too convenient segue into their track Kyle Quit The Band, and the set just got better from there on in. TD performed tracks from both their albums such as Dio, Friendship ,their biggest hit Tribute and their most romantic song, Fuck Her Gently. Let’s hope it’s not another eight years before the return of Tenacious D. A triumphant performance.
By the end of TD’s set, AAMI park was well and truly at capacity and getting quite rowdy in anticipation of one of the world’s biggest rock bands, the Foo Fighters. As my eyes wandered around the packed stadium, I noticed a giant beer tent had been set up in the general admission area. It dawned on me that The Fooey’s are too big for Aussie festivals that they actually have to create their own. They entered the stage to the roar of 30,000 overly excited fans and blew everyone out of their seats with the massive sound of set opener All My Life. The sound only got better as they smashed through a 22 song set list of hits including Rope, The Pretender, My Hero, Learn To Fly, Breakout, Monkey Wrench, This Is A Call, Stacked Actors and Best Of You, to name a few. The mosh pit was divided by a 70 metre catwalk leading up to Grohl’s own personal ten foot riser – and he wasn’t afraid to use it. Like a kid running down the isle in a toy store, Dave would sporadically randown the catwalk for a bit of mid-song “shred”, often sprinting back to the stage, full pelt, to rejoin his bandmates. Drummer Taylor Hawkins was on fire, complete with an epic drum solo. He is definitely the crowd favourite – just behind Grohl, of course. The rest of the band are just as talented as Grohl and Hawkins, and it doesn’t go unnoticed, with Grohl giving each one a shout out complete with solos to show off their talents. After a near three hour onslaught of rock and a five song encore which featured Wheels, Times Like These and Generator, the band closed with the epic Everlong, which was definitely a crowd favourite. As long as Grohl and his Foo Fighters keep writing great songs and rocking out as hard as they did on this night, there’s no reason why they can’t continue for another ten years. An epic night of stadium rock at its best.
BY TREY BORDIN
LOVED: The atmosphere.
HATED: The queues.
DRANK: Carlton Draught from a cup.
