Foo Fighters – Portland

After experiencing an epic festival adventure going back to an arena show was a bit of a personal adjustment for show number 3.
The Moda centre is very similar to the PNE forum in Vancouver, 90% concrete. I came here tonight for the Foo Fighters. The sound was shitty which was not surprising considering the structure. Had I known in advance than I would’ve passed on coming here. Thankfully I love the band enough that I was able to put on my rose covered glasses on.
We bought our tickets from a secondary source within our budget, therefore, we had the very back of the stadium top row. I was itching to be on the floor but the scalper game was iffy in a territory that I was unfamiliar with. In retrospect the bird’s eye view was kinda cool cause I got to see a lot of the technical aspects that most miss including the back and behind the stage workings. It was like watching the behind the scenes footage of your favourite movie.
I also got to see different lighting tricks and angles from the throne.
The technical music nerd in me got off watching the secondary soundman mix the show. I went to recording engineering school, therefore, what would be like watching paint dry for someone else was intriguing to me.
The audience booed Dave for not drinking a Portland craft beer. Dave was joking with the audience, however, I could tell that he was annoyed by the incident. They treated the situation as if he made some anti American rant. Because of this Dave’s banter was cut shorter and he was aiming for the finish line on some songs.
The set list started off as planned in the same order as the other nights, however, during the last third the band threw in a very rare track Hey Johnny Park! And 3 honourable Van Halen covers in a row: Heavy Metal, Panama, and You Really Got Me that were way better than the originals. They even made the stationary arena disco ball operational during one of the VH songs. Taylor owned those songs. You could tell that he used to rock out to those songs as a teenager in his bedroom. Ironically the Van Halen covers were performed better than the actual band did on their last tour.
Dave physically seemed better as he was standing longer on his feet compared to the other two nights.
The audience was into it, however, they weren’t enthusiastic. The pit seemed lack luster. Very little movement with the exception of when Everlong was played which had the tiniest circle pit. Almost made me appreciate my seat more.