Review: 3 hours of Foo Fighters bangers, Josh Freese's epic drumming & Jack Black's Big Balls

Last night was my first time ever seeing Foo Fighters live, and holy fkn shit, I don’t think I’ll ever recover. God DAMN that was one hell of a show. 

I’m a 24 year old gal who only got into rock music in the last few years, so each time a rock band or artist comes to NZ, it’s usually my first opportunity to see them live. That’s why I’d never seen Foo Fighters before - until last night - and me oh my it’s gotta be my favourite gig I’ve ever been to. (I know I said that about Guns N’ Roses, but last night took the cake.)

The boys started with a hiss and a roar with ‘All My Life,’ before ripping into ‘No Son Of Mine’ and mate, it was just banger after banger the whole night. My only qualm with the evening was I couldn’t figure out when to go to the toilet or tackle the drinks line, because there were simply no songs I felt like I could miss. 

The highlight had to be none other than Jack Black hopping onto the stage to cover AC/DC’s ‘Big Balls’ alongside the Foo’s drum technician Fiona. It’s safe to say I absolutely flipped my shit.

The band began to play the intro to the AC/DC tune, as Grohl exclaimed, “So here’s the thing, I’m not singing this one,” before Jack Black skipped onto the stage in true Jack-Black-style, complete with a pounamu around his neck.

Him and Fiona killed it - Black was bouncing around the stage, while Grohl and Chris Shifflet provided some back up vocals (Grohl sang and played guitar all with a durry in his mouth and that was pretty badass). Black ended the performance by doing a couple of roly-polys down the stage and lifting his shirt up to jiggle his tummy around. 

Black's currently in New Zealand filming the Minecraft movie - and it’s safe to say the crowd was beyond stoked to see him. I just feel bad for my mate Joe who went to the loo at the worst time and missed the whole damn song. (Sucks to suck, Joe.)

Throughout the gig, Grohl made sure to tell the crowd how much love he has for our country. He referenced a bunch of previous gigs the Foos have played here, and told us we were “the loudest audience” they’ve ever had. 

Honestly, the whole band were on form from start to finish. Grohl's energy was unmatched, Josh Freese's drumming gave me full body chills, Pat Smears' smile is the most wholesome shit I've ever seen, Chris Shifflet knows how to jam a guitar, Nate was on form as per, and Rami had a cool psychedelic moment on the screens which had me saying 'is anyone else seeing this or have I had too many beers?'

Side note - Jacs from promos and I headed to the airport on Friday morning to see if we could catch any of the boys as they landed. We were in luck - we met Josh Freese and he was an absolute legend. He was happy as to take photos with some of the fans that had the same idea as us. Certified GC! 

Back to the gig - at one point when the spotlight was on Pat Smear, Grohl asked the crowd, "Do you reckon he should move to New Zealand?" which made the crowd erupt. He quickly followed that up with, "he's mine, mother-fkers."

Another highlight was Grohl's dedication to Taylor Hawkins. He sung 'Aurora' for the late, great drummer - a song the two wrote together. Shit it made me emotional. 

If you’re headed to Foo Fighters Christchurch or Wellington gigs, I’m telling you now you are in for a treat. If you don’t have a ticket you should definitely get one. 

Check out the full setlist of the night below, provided by Setlist FM. 

Foo Fighters Auckland setlist (Jan 20 2023) - 

1. All My Life
2. No Son of Mine (With 'Paranoid' and 'Enter Sandman' riff)
3. Rescued
4. The Pretender
5. Walk
6. Times Like These
7. Generator
8. La Dee Da
9. Breakout
10. Guitar Solo / Sabotage / Keyboard Solo / Blitzkrieg Bop / Whip It / March of the Pigs 
11. My Hero (Dave solo into full band)
12. The Sky Is a Neighborhood
13. Learn to Fly
14. Arlandria
15. Under You
16. These Days
17. Statues (Dave Grohl, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee)
18. Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners (Dave solo into full band)
19. Nothing At All (With The Beatles 'Blackbird' riff)
20. Monkey Wrench
21. Aurora (Dedicated to Taylor Hawkins)
22. This Is A Call
23. Big Balls (AC/DC cover with Jack Black and Drum Tech Fiona)
24. Best of You

Encore - 

25. The Teacher
26. Everlong

If you don’t wanna take my word for it, I asked the office to send me a one line review of the gig, here’s what they all had to say:

What. A. Night. Bloody love ya, Foo Fighters.