Foo Fighters - Milton Keynes National Bowl, 05/09/15

Because last week wasn't busy enough - with the Bring Me The Horizon headline show, and the entire weekend at Reading festival - yesterday I went to see Foo Fighters headline the Milton Keynes National Bowl. It was a pretty small show, with only a capacity of 65,000 people, so it wasn't a big deal... Honestly...

Opening up, Royal Blood instantly got the audience's attention by playing their intro song, '99 Problems' by Jay-Z. Because the day was decidedly rock-centric, it made for an interesting choice, but judging from the crowd reaction it definitely went over well. When the band came out they seemed so relaxed, you'd almost think they were used to playing crowds of this size - when you consider the fact that they played main stage at Reading and Leeds festival last week, it's almost becoming a daily occurrence for them, but for a band who only have one album it's unnatural that looked so calm. Vocalist Mike Kerr was extremely humble, taking the time to "thank you for coming down so early" and saying "I can't tell you how good it feels to make it and actually be here" - thinking about the fact that the band were only announced as openers last week, it must have been a bit of a last minute thing to get them put on this rescheduled show, but I was glad that they made it too.
Despite the fact that they only have one release under their belts, this was a set filled with hits. From 'Come On Over' to 'Figure It Out', 'Little Monster' to 'Ten Tonne Skeleton', it was obvious that every member of the crowd was going to recognise at least one song. I haven't listened to that much Royal Blood before, but I found that I knew more songs than were new to me (only having not heard 'You Can be So Cruel', 'One Trick Pony' and 'Loose Change') which was a big surprise - I didn't think I'd stumbled across as much as I had. Talking of 'One Trick Pony': the vocal arrangement on the track really impressed me, and I'm disappointed in myself that I hadn't heard it before - it's brilliant. If there was a Royal Blood song I thought had the best shot of becoming one of my favourites, this will be it.
I didn't manage to catch much of their set at Reading (in fact, only hearing half a song while travelling in between bands) but I saw their Reading 2014 festival set and it didn't blow me away. I'm happy to say that my impression of them has completely turned around after this performance - they excelled themselves. They're a band that might not have the best stage presence - drummer Ben Thatcher was constantly taking breaks, stepping away from the drum kit and walking offstage, leaving a little bit of awkward silence behind him - but musically they are superb. During 'Out of the Black', there was quite a large intermission while Ben and Mike had a bit of a chat, but when they dived back into it and thrashed out their instruments in a dramatic climax... There are no words to describe it, because it was utterly sublime.
It'll take a while for Royal Blood to really turn me into a fan, because there are still too many bits that make me unsure - the extra long instrumentals, the strange breaks, the general awkwardness - but they're getting there. 

Setlist:

Come On Over

You Can Be So Cruel

Figure It Out

Little Monster

One Trick Pony

Ten Tonne Skeleton

Loose Change

Out of the Black (with 'Iron Man' by Black Sabbath outro)

Someone that I don't think will ever be able to turn me into a fan is Iggy Pop. I understand that he's a massive icon, an idol for a lot of people, but I just don't really understand the appeal. A (nearly)70 year old man running around stage without a shirt on, swearing so profusely he might as well not use any other words, and playing mediocre rock music? Not my cup of tea.
It wasn't that bad, I suppose - yes, most of the songs sounded the same, but they were catchy in a strange sort of way. I'm not quite sure why, but all of the lyrics just seemed to be pointing to the fact that these were parodies of rock songs. Take 'Skull Ring' for example: "Skull ring, fast cars, hot chicks, money" chanted over and over again as a chorus. It feels... Ridiculous. Yep, that's the only word for it. Similarly, 'Nightclubbing': "Nightclubbing, we're nightclubbing, we're what's happening, nightclubbing, we're nightclubbing". I just cannot take this kind of lyrical content seriously, so I had fun - but that was only because it felt like mockery, so I was enjoying laughing about it.
I know it might sound a bit harsh, but that's honestly just how I felt. There were some good songs - 'The Passenger' and 'Lust For Life' most obviously, with his cover of 'Real Wild Child (Wild One)' coming in close third - but the rest of the set just didn't click with me, at all. I might have enjoyed the set more without the constant swearing, but it was just over the top and it felt so forced - it wasn't natural, it felt as though he was strategically thinking about where to place the next swear word for effect (proven when he took a couple of seconds between words just to come out with another swear word, such as when he said "It fucking means... fucking everything for me to be here". It's not smart, it's not clever, and it's not funny. For a concert that seemed to be catering quite well to families, it was just plain silly - if you know there's a lot of younger people in the audience, please reign yourself in, even if just a little bit. (You'll notice in my Foo Fighters review that Dave Grohl used a lot of swearing during their set as well, but it didn't feel as uncomfortable - it seemed like it was just Dave getting over-excited and letting his language get the better of him. That might be because I've already seen them before and knew what to expect, but I don't remember feeling weird with the language the first time I saw them, and that was when I was only just 15. It's hard to explain the difference that I feel between the two, but for some reason it just didn't sit well with me during Iggy's set.)
This wasn't the worst performance I'd ever seen, but it was certainly the most cringe-inducing. It didn't get any better later on, with Iggy talking to the crowd before 'Some Weird Sin', proceeding to ask a girl in the crowd "I love you I was born poor! Hey baby, are you poor? Did you beg, borrow and steal for this ticket?" which was a little bit shuddery, but became even creepier when he decided to recite the first chorus of 'Some Weird Sin' before performing the song... It was the first time I'd ever seen a band introduce their song by just saying the lyrics, and it didn't really work too well. I might have felt different about this set if I'd grown up with Iggy Pop and had some sort of idea what to expect beforehand, but I didn't have any idea what I was getting myself into. Final song 'Mass Production' was just a massive anti-climax: it dragged on and on for what felt like hours, before Iggy walked off stage without so much as a goodbye, and it meant that the end felt as flat as the rest of the set did.

Setlist:

No Fun

I Wanna Be Your Dog

The Passenger

Lust For Life

Skull Ring

Sixteen

Five Foot One

1969

Sister Midnight

Real Wild Child (Wild One) cover

Nightclubbing

Some Weird Sin

Mass Production

It's not even debatable that Foo Fighters put on the best performance of the night. Could you really expect anything else? After cancelling Wembley Stadium due to - as vocalist Dave Grohl puts it - "the incident", I was even more excited for this show than I'd been for that one. It would have been amazing to see them in a stadium, but this was my third time seeing them outside (the first being at Milton Keynes back in '11, the second being the Invictus Games closing ceremony last September) and it just has such a brilliant atmosphere - you can't beat rocking out in a random field.
With a big backdrop displaying the logo hanging over the stage before their entrance, Dave's crutch-assisted journey to his throne was invisible to us, meaning that when the backdrop fell to reveal him in the rockiest throne you'll ever see it was a goosebump-inducing moment. Before speeding into 'Everlong', Dave shouted "we turned up for you, so let's do it!" and announced "we waited a long fucking time to be here - it's gonna be a long fucking night!". Despite the fact that Dave was restricted to his throne, it didn't mean that his stage explorations were stopped - the magical throne moved to the end of the runway, stopped to let Dave play for a little bit, then retreated back to the stage so he could be with his band mates. As well as this, Dave decided to stand up during 'Monkey Wrench' to dance along a little bit, saying "I'm getting better, I can fucking dance with you! Do you wanna dance?".
The other times I've seen Foo Fighters, Dave has been unable to stand still - probably one of the reasons the injury happened: if you're that energetic, you're probably going to hurt yourself one day! But it did mean that I was a little bit worried - if a band's entire stage persona is their energetic, unstoppable lead singer, what will they do when he's a bit less energetic than usual? And it was during this night that it really hit me: it's not Dave's energy that makes a Foo Fighters show fun, it's their music. This was more relaxed (for a Foo Fighters show) but there still wasn't a single moment that I didn't love, and it proves to me that it's the band as a whole who are entertaining and brilliant - not just their awesome frontman.
Dave was still the centre of attention, of course. With his light up throne it would be hard not to have all eyes on him for most of the night! He was - understandably - apologetic about the broken leg, saying "the last fucking thing I wanted to do was cancel those shows. I hate cancelling shows! I said we have to get back here as soon as we fucking can. And I have to tell you, I'm so fucking sorry for making you wait so long - there was nothing I could do. So tonight we're going to play some extra long shit for you!". And extra long shit they did play - with a twenty two song setlist including songs that they haven't played since 2012 getting added in as crowd requests, and a cover of Queen featuring a member of Queen and a member of Led Zeppelin. In other words, this was a pretty special show, and it definitely made up for the extra two months of waiting time.
Before they jumped back into their bumper set, Dave took a bit more time to talk about his injury, explaining "I don't usually sit in this awesome fucking throne!" and shouting out to the doctor who treated him - who was actually from London (he jokingly said "someone said there's no good doctors in England!"). He said that at the other shows on the tour, specifically in America ("in some cities I'm like 'dya know why I'm in this fucking throne?' and Denver, Colorado are like 'I don't know, man, why are you in a fucking throne?"), they've been showing a slideshow of images to tell the story, but because they wanted to play as many songs as possible at the show they decided to just show one beautiful image instead - the picture of the throne that Dave drew while high on oxycodone after his operation ("I sent that to the road crew and I said build this!"). The entire reason he drew the throne was because he said there was speculation that they might not have been able to reschedule the dates as quickly as he'd hoped, so he said "I'll get a doctor to put some metal plates in my leg and then I'll sit on a throne for the rest of my fucking tour!". Dave then said "we got a lot of songs to gotta play tonight before they kick us out," and started to prepare to play again, before saying "we gotta play songs from the first record, and the second record, and the third record, and the fourth record, and the fifth record, and the sixth record. How many records do we have? Eight? We'll play from the eighth one too!".
There were multiple moments that made me laugh out loud, but there were also touching aspects to the show as well. One of the more poignant moments was when Dave thanked all of the road crew, most of who have been touring with their band for fifteen or twenty years. He made a special shout out to Dan, their lighting man, and dedicated the slowed down version of 'Big Me' to him - during the song Dan turned the lights out and the entire bowl lit up with mobile phones in the air, which was made even more touching when Dan was shown looking rather emotional on the big screens.
Another high point of the show was following 'Walk' (oh, the irony) when Dave took the time to introduce all of the band members and allow them to do their own things. Talking about Chris Shiflett ("he's fucking... Good. He's the best one in the band! He's the only one that can do that guitar solo thing!"), Rami Jaffee ("the keyboards and the pianos and the things you need to learn how to play"), Nate 'Saint' Mendel (who the audience couldn't see, because "this clumsy throne is blocking your view!"), Pat Smear and "last but not least I want you to meet a friend of mine, and his name's Taylor Hawkins on the drums! In the fucking flesh, about as close as you're ever going to get to him". It shows how tight knit the band are, because it all runs so smoothly - the introductions and the brilliantly performed solos, showing just how vital each member is to the clockwork of this machine. Sometimes - and I hate to admit this! - it seems like some bands have members which seem disposable. This has never been a problem with Foo Fighters - they can all hold their own, and they're all brilliant. To further prove how multi-talented their members are, they followed the solos up with 'A Cold Day In The Sun' - the song that Taylor performs lead vocals on - dedicating it to "bare titty", a drunken shirtless man up on his friends' shoulders.
What followed was the best moment I've ever witnessed at a live show. Dave stopped proceedings to share the fact that "about an hour and a half ago, a couple of our friends showed up and we thought 'oh, maybe we should do a song together!'" and then proceeded to introduce their "two sweet friends", Roger Taylor (ex-Queen drummer) and John Paul Jones (ex-Led Zeppelin bassist). The crowd went crazy as soon as they both arrived, with Dave quipping "I don't know if y'all have ever seen a super group, this is a super duper group! The Foo Fighters right now are living our rock and roll fantasy". Playing 'Under Pressure', John Paul Jones stepped up to the keyboard and Taylor gave his drums over to Roger Taylor, meaning that Taylor and Dave did a brilliantly perfect co-vocal performance on the track. Taylor's vocal is well-exhibited in 'A Cold Day Under The Sun', but not to the extent that it was showcased in this song - I was breathless. If I thought Taylor was talented before, I don't know what to call him now. Sadly, the song was over almost as soon as it began, and while the rest of the set was still brilliantly performed there was no way they could peak any higher than this point. It was touching that they performed a Queen cover, both in a tribute to the band - who were the first band to ever play the Milton Keynes National Bowl - and as a tribute to their lead singer, Freddie Mercury - as the concert fell on what would have been his sixty-ninth birthday.
As well as playing most of their greatest hits, this is still the tour for their most recent album, 'Sonic Highways', so they added in lesser known song 'Outside'. This was the only moment of the set that fell even slightly flat for me - I could see what they were trying to do with the song: the soaring, guitar-filled instrumental section, the five-minute plus playing time... It just didn't compare to their other songs, in that it wasn't one that you could have really sung along to even if you'd known it. It was the only part of the set that didn't work, but I can see that they still had to add in new material - it just seems strange that they played this while omitting greats such as 'My Hero' and 'Long Road To Ruin'. On the other hand, Dave's throne had smoke pouring out from it for most of the song, so it looked absolutely beautiful, even if it was a bit yawn-inducing.
It definitely picked up again following 'Outside', with Dave yelling "we got some old shit that I wanna play for you!". Speeding through 'This Is A Call', Dave asked the crowd if they had any requests, and then said "we're gonna try to do something that we haven't done in a very long time, cause seven people wanna hear it...", asked Pat if he knew the song, and then the band burst into 'DOA'. As this is my all time favourite Foo Fighters song, I was more than a little bit excited - I couldn't help laughing when Dave forgot some of the words, because they have that many songs that I can imagine it would be difficult to keep them all straight in your head! Despite the errors it was still a brilliant performance, and judging by the crowd's reaction they'd be wise to think about putting it in their set more frequently.
The other two 'rarities' that they performed were 'For All The Cows' (before which Dave commented "here's an old one I do remember!") and 'Aurora' - the latter of which was dedicated to super fan, Rose. Dave called out to her in the crowd, saying "when I come out on stage and see you in the front row I know everything's going to be alright", which probably means that she wasn't present at the fateful Swedish concert, but was an extremely touching moment that cemented how caring this band are about their fans - despite the fact that they can sell out stadiums in the blink of an eye.
Closing with 'Best of You' was a no-brainer, because the last time they performed 'Best of You' in Milton Keynes the crowd sang the "oh-oh-oh" refrain between the rest of the songs that they played, meaning it's much easier to just close the show with that one and have done with. Before starting the song, Dave shared that "I would not have this amazing life and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys. I always knew we'd come back, I just hoped you would too".
Well, if tonight's anything to go by, the next time that Foo Fighters play in the UK all of the people in this venue will be fighting for tickets. Once you experience one Foo Fighters show, it's impossible to say no to the next, or the next, or the next... So if you're ready to get hooked on the best live experience of your life, go ahead and keep an eye out for their next tour! Hopefully, next time they tour here Dave will have regained full mobility - personally, I'm really going to miss the moving throne, because it was absolutely magical. I just wish I could go back and do it all again already!

Setlist:
Everlong
Monkey Wrench
Learn To Fly
Something From Nothing
The Pretender
Big Me
Congregation
Walk
A Cold Day In The Sun
Under Pressure cover (ft. John Paul Jones and Roger Taylor)
All My Life
Times Like These
These Days
White Limo
Arlandria
Break Out
Outside
This Is A Call
D.O.A.
For All The Cows
Aurora
Best Of You

Invictus Games Closing Concert - 14/09/14

The message behind the Invictus Games is that we are all equal and so prejudice is unnecessary, and I feel that came through extremely strongly with the line-up for the closing concert. If you can show me another concert that can feature Rizzle Kicks, Ellie Goulding and Foo Fighters seamlessly and perfectly, I will be majorly surprised. 

But that's exactly what happened here.

Starting off with the pipes and drums from the Brigade of Gurkhas was traditional, but mixing it up by involving the drummers in the first dance from Britain's Got Talent alumni Diversity was a stroke of genius the likes of which I haven't seen in a long time. It was an unexpected and intelligent decision that made me a lot more excited about what was going to develop throughout the course of the day. Diversity then went on to perform a second dance, inviting vocal group Urban Voices on stage to sing 'Cry Me A River' by Justin Timberlake. I will admit, I was slightly disappointed by Diversity; their performances look a lot more impressive on TV, but I have never seen a dance troupe live before so this might be a regular issue in a live environment.

Next up, surprise special guest Bryan Adams whose set was short but sweet. Playing 'Run To You', 'She Knows Me' and 'When You're Gone' meant that he didn't perform any of his best known songs, but with the set being performed acoustically he demonstrated a raw talent that seems hard to beat in the music scene of today.

Setlist:
Run To You
She Knows Me
When You're Gone

Following an absolute legend with Rizzle Kicks shouldn't have worked, but they were brimming with exuberant energy and, while they definitely weren't the most on point performers of the day, their set was completely fun. Excluding 'Down With The Trumpets' from their set in favour of new release 'Tell Her' seemed unusual, but 'Mama Do The Hump' had the entire crowd screaming and dancing along, showing that Rizzle Kicks are greatly appreciated despite being relatively new on the scene.

Setlist: 
Tell Her
Mama Do The Hump

An event like Invictus Games couldn't go ahead without the inclusion of the Military Wives Choir, who seemed pretty average. I don't mean for that to sound harsh, I've just never really seen the appeal with the group. I do think it's admirable that they have taken their negative experiences and turned them into something positive and enlightening and they are indeed inspiring, I just don't think they're that impressive vocally.

The energy soon picked up again though, with The Vamps bursting onto the stage to perform 'Somebody To You', 'Last Night' and 'Cecilia'. While they haven't yet got One Directions fan base or global appeal I can't see it taking too long, as they seemed truly grateful to be there and attempted to interact with the crowd as much as possible, even if the audience didn't seem to be too receptive to their efforts. But their songs are catchy and with 'Somebody To You' recently getting re-released with a guest vocal by Demi Lovato I can see them going to high up places fast.

Setlist:
Somebody To You
Last Night
Cecilia

On the other hand, comedian Terry Alderton was absolutely disgusting. I understand that topical comedy is a big-seller and usually I would have found his jokes funny, but the Invictus Games are more of a family event than the types of rooms he'd usually be playing. Telling jokes ranging from kidnapping to commentary about the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, this brand of comedy was just too topical for a family environment and while he seemed to be reveling in being boo'd off stage it's not something to celebrate; it just made the entire crowd feel uncomfortable and definitely dampened the mood on what had otherwise been a faultless day.

Another performer who couldn't have been missing from the closing concert was James Blunt. It's well known that he was in the military for six years so I'm sure the Invictus story was extremely close to his heart and it definitely seemed to be as he beamed his way through his entire set. His set may only have been five songs but he managed to squeeze in three songs from recent release 'Moon Landing' (namely 'Stay The Night', 'Heart To Heart' and 'Bonfire Heart') and the happier lyrical content and the upbeat music demonstrates perfectly how content James is with his life at the moment, following his recent marriage to Sofia Wellesley. Interspersing his new songs with smash hits 'You're Beautiful' (during which the screen focused upon a teary military man singing along, which was poignant and heart-warming) and '1973', which concluded with James climbing into the crowd and crowd-surfing, filled with the energy that's more usually expected from a five year old.

Setlist:
Stay The Night
You're Beautiful
Heart To Heart
Bonfire Heart
1973

Following James Blunt was a surprise appearance from folk punk singer Frank Turner, who played three songs: 'The Way I Tend To Be', 'The Next Storm' and 'I Still Believe'. This is the second time I've seen Frank Turner but he was completely spot on vocally and musically. There is something special about this man and, while I can't put my finger on what that is, we were lucky to have him appear.

Setlist: 
The Way I Tend To Be
The Next Storm
I Still Believe

Next up, Ryan Adams and the Shining. Starting off with recent single 'Gimme Something Good' got the crowd involved, but over the course of the next four songs he seemed to lose both attention and interest. 'Gimme Something Good' is the only song of his that I've heard before, but after his performance it's still the only one I can remember, which tells me something about the fact that he does have a talent but it's not outstanding or remarkable; it's verging on average and forgettable. Being the only artist not to mention Invictus or to thank Prince Harry he didn't really seem to get into the spirit of the concert, which was very disappointing after such an amazing response from the other artists.

Contrasting completely to the failure of Terry Alderton earlier in the day, Gina Yashere and her brand of comedy were very well accepted by the crowd at the event. Throughout the day presenters and special guests were performing on a smaller stage to the right of the main stage while it was being set up, but Gina quickly went against the status quo, sprinting from one end of the stage to the other shouting "Keep up with me camera man! I'm gonna make you work for your money!". If you've never seen a performance by Gina before I would highly recommend checking her out because I think she's absolutely hilarious. The rest of the crowd seemed to agree with me, with her entire set being filled with laughing, clapping and cheers, which was a welcome relief after the uncomfortably terrible performance from Terry.

I didn't think I would enjoy Ellie Goulding's performance. I've never really understood the appeal with her music, with 'Starry Eyed' and 'Explosions' being what I would describe as whiny and annoying, but I was pleasantly surprised with her set tonight. Starting off with 'Figure 8', a song I'd never heard before, I was automatically impressed with her stage presence, bounding around the stage with a frantic energy and she didn't let up for the entire set she played. Featuring massive hits 'Anything Can Happen', 'Need Your Love' (during which she showed off the fact that she was using a partial backing track in a massive middle finger to the haters who accuse her of lip-syncing) she slowed it down for 'Lights' then jumped back in with 'Burn', the lead single off of re-release 'Halcyon Days'. With time off coming up quickly to work on a new album, I'm extremely excited to hear what Ellie Goulding does next, because she's managed to convert me.

Setlist: 
Figure 8
Anything Can Happen
Need Your Love
Lights
Burn

I'm extremely biased towards both of the final two acts. This was the first time I'd seen Kaiser Chiefs live, after an extremely long time of wanting to, and I was not left disappointed (well, apart from the short set that they played, only comprising of five songs). 'Ruby' incited a massive gang singalong, with 'Never Miss A Beat' getting everyone up and dancing the most that they had all night. New single 'Coming Home' didn't get as much of a reaction, but it also didn't fall short, showing that Kaiser Chiefs fans are extremely supportive of their music and don't care which direction they go next as long as they keep making new music. 'I Predict A Riot' had the best reaction, but with vocalist Ricky Wilson creating three Mexican waves in a row during 'Oh My God' it was a very close call.

Setlist: 
Ruby
Never Miss A Beat
Coming Home
I Predict A Riot
Oh My God

Before Foo Fighters performance was the fourth and final medal ceremony, featuring the athletes from Great Britain and a very special speech from Prince Harry (including a Mexican wave and a "message from Granny") which really pulled the focus back on to the athletes and the reason that we were all there. With one of the veterans exclaiming "without your support we'd be in pieces at home, instead we're here today, kicking the arse out of life" and there was no better way to describe exactly what the Invictus Games did for these amazing men and women. Despite the fact that I only managed to attend the closing concert I really wish I'd managed to make it to some of the games, because the adversity that these people have managed to overcome have proven to me that you really can get past anything if you have enough determination and it's definitely changed my perspective on life. I hope the Invictus Games continue for many years to come, because Prince Harry has created an inspirational and inclusive event that will help push the general public in a firm way towards acceptance for all.

But then, for the main event; Foo Fighters. Of course, a normal Foo Fighters headline set lasts between two or three hours, so many of the massive hits were missing from this set list, but it still managed to span most of their career and fit in some lesser known songs as well. Kicking off with 'All My Life' they demonstrated what they do best by extending the instrumental in the middle of the song for three or four minutes and, despite the fact that in a recorded environment it could be described as over doing it, in a live environment it's an absolutely flawless decision. Dave Grohl will always have the crowd eating out of his hands no matter what he does: extended instrumentals, sharing funny stories - the crowd loved every single second of it. Playing eleven songs is never going to be enough for a Foo Fighters set, but every second was faultless which is exactly why they're both the biggest and the best rock band on the planet right now. Despite their short set time, they still played 'Cold Day In The Sun', giving drummer Taylor Hawkins his chance to shine on the vocals, despite getting the giggles halfway through after swearing live on the BBC. The entire crowd were screaming along with the words to almost every song, proving that even people that had attended with a preference towards one of the other artists were still affected by Foo Fighters. Their reach is extreme; if you ask anyone on the street they will know at least one song and that's the appeal with them. I've never heard anyone utter the words "I don't like Foo Fighters" and, I can assure you, I will not be hearing them after their performance at this closing concert either. Foo Fighters are on top of the world and that's exactly where they're going to stay, and with new album 'Sonic Highways' out in November and their twentieth anniversary celebrations quickly approaching, the only way is up.

Setlist: 
All My Life
Times Like These
The Pretender
Learn To Fly
My Hero
White Limo
Arlandria
Cold Day In The Sun
Walk
Best of You
Everlong