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From the opening notes of Bridge Burning the Foo Fighters absolutely owned the stage. Within minutes Dave Grohl had stormed the length of his runway out into the crowd.
The atmosphere was electric as they tore into latest single Rope followed by The Pretender.
My Hero had the whole crowd singing and Dave had everyone clapping along in an instant. Nobody would doubt these guys are rock legends as Dave said: “we used to suck, but now we’re fucking rad!”
Before promising to play as long and as hard as possible by playing as many songs as they can as they launch into Learn To Fly.
Up next was the thrashy White Limo, possibly the heaviest track from their latest album offering. Dave’s jokey banter between songs just proves why he is described as ‘the nicest man in rock.’
Twice during the evening he chugged entire bottles of beer in an impressive 14 seconds (I roughly timed him!)
Breakout was a massive hit with the crowd before Taylor took to the mic for Cold Day In The Sun. During Stacked Actors Dave ran the whole length of the runway before appearing on the other side of the mixing desk on a platform right in the centre of the crowd. Dave and Chris had a guitar battle before Dave joined the rest of the band on stage for one final chorus.
Monkey Wrench was another crowd pleaser which was rounded off with a short little drum solo from Taylor.
As the sun began to set the full effect of the lighting rigs and strobe lights became pretty impressive as the crowd became a mass of camera and phone lights. This created the perfect atmosphere for the spine-tingling Best Of You.
They rounded the set off with Skin And Bones and the anthemic All My Life. For the encore Dave sprinted back out onto the platform behind the mixing desk and played a gorgeous solo of Wheels followed by Times Like These for which he was joined by the rest of the band for the close.
A stomping cover of Mose Allison’s Young Man Blues was a fantastic lead up to Dave being joined on stage by none other than Led Zeppelin’s very own John Paul Jones AND Seasick Steve.
Dave took to the drums at this stage whilst the three of them had a jam. You can’t help but feel a tingle at being there for moments like these that go down in the history of rock gigs.
They finished off with Everlong, which came alongside a somewhat spectacular firework display. It was an incredible end to a phenomenal concert.
Biffy Clyro were a brilliant warm-up act although I felt that they played a rather surprising set, opting for a majority of tracks from their latest album Only Revolutions. They threw in a handful of songs from Puzzle but disappointingly barely touched upon their earlier material.
Jimmy Eat World gave a fantastic performance. They opened with Bleed American and proceeded to fill their forty five minute set with all their best hits. Jim may not have the most technically perfect voice but his live vocals are fantastic.
The event was opened by The Hot Rats (Supergrass’ Gaz and Dan). They dabble in middle of the road feel-good indie rock and roll. They have a nice big sound for a two-piece and benefited well from the tightness that comes along with being a duo.
To mark the 40th anniversary of Jim Morrison’s death they threw in a rocked up cover of Crystal Ship by The Doors as well as an up tempo cover of Love Cats by The Cure.
Words by Tina Bass. Pictures by Lara Cullen