Breakout: Foo Fighters rock Geelong as concerts return

FOO Fighters has made a triumphant return to Australia in their first gig here in four years, with about 30,000 fans rocking out in Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium’s debut as a concert venue.

Last Friday’s sold-out event was the nation’s first full-capacity stadium show by any international music artist since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Foo Fighters made the most of the slightly rainy conditions, playing for nearly three hours and having the crowd roaring for more after every tune.

“It’s been a long time,” frontman Dave Grohl said, three songs in. “Do you miss rock and roll? Do you love rock and roll?”

Opening with “Times Like These”, the US band’s set stretched the breadth of their 27-year career, taking a song or two from almost all their studio albums and had everything from the Foos’ first single “This is a Call” and Medicine at Midnight cut “No Son of Mine” to enormous hits “Best of You” and “The Pretender” and a cover of the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing”.

Before closing with “Everlong”, Grohl said the band would return in November for a fully-fledged Australian tour.

“Thank you very much for coming out to the show tonight. We should do it more often, right?”