5 November 2026 – Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Bec Harbour
There is so much talk about Australia’s best musical exports, but not enough about Australia’s favorite imports. There could be no bigger international band that Australians love, than the Foo Fighters. The band has toured extensively over this country over the last 30 years, and even popped over for one-off shows. But this time, they were back with an extended tour, hitting Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, with stints in Townsville and Newcastle, and 2 shows over the ditch in New Zealand. And we were super fortunate to be invited to the opening night of the tour in Brisbane. Unfortunately, due to travel issues into the venue, I missed most of Mini Skirt’s set. I caught the last song though, and they were so fun live. I hope they’re back soon so I can see a full set.
Mini Skirt – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
It was so dope to see Brisbane’s very own Full Flower Moon Band open at Suncorp for this show. The band have popped big on the radar for a lot of people, after artists like Jack Black, Iggy Pop, and Fred Durst, and comedian Noel Fielding all have talked about their love for the band. And with the announcement that the band will also be performing on the Brisbane and Hobart legs of the Powderfinger reunion shows, the band are having their true moment in the sun.
I remember twelve months ago, seeing them for the first time at ZED50, just around the corner from Suncorp, playing the Roma Street Parklands in the middle of the day to a couple thousand people. Now, there are thirty thousand plus, taking in this band, and being showcased on the biggest stage possible in their home town. The set was hilarious, with vocalist Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillion cracking jokes between songs, and taking in the moment of being on this stage. The rocket is only going higher for this band. And with a new album on the horizon, it’s going to be exciting to see where they land.
Full Flower Moon Band – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
As 7:30pm rolled around, everyone was getting anxious for Foo Fighters to walk out. Then, the lights dropped, as Dave Grohl and the rest of the Foo Fighters ran out on stage to thunderous applause. There was a massive ramp in the middle of the front pit, with a second stage that Dave ran out to, and when running back to the main stage, he tripped and ate massive shit. He laughed it off, and got on the mic before a note was even played, to say “Welcome to the show motherfuckers”. Opening on ‘All My Life’, Brisbane was rocking around, singing louder at times than the band themselves. Grohl has such an incredible way with the fans, and knows when to pick the moments to let the crowd sing for him, and at every chance tonight, he let Brisbane sing.
Up next was ‘The Pretender’, and right before the quiet part of the song, Grohl asked Brisbane if they liked rock and roll music, before ripping a really sick solo that’s not on the original version of the song. I’d love to see the track re-done with that solo because holy shit, it rules. For added context, this was only the second song of the night, and the band had already been on stage for nearly 20 minutes. That’s how much they stretched these songs out and interacted with the crowd. It was insane. With a shout of “Times Like These, let’s go”, we got ‘Times Like These’, before it bled effortlessly into ‘Rope’. Grohl was a sweating mess by this point, and in what will be a recurring theme for the night, I gotta shout out Ilan Rubin’s drumming, specifically on ‘Rope’. Good god that man is unreal live.
Foo Fighters – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Stacked Actors’ was played for the old school fans, before we got the biggest singalong of the night for ‘My Hero’, which was another track that bled effortlessly into ‘Learn to Fly’. Grohl got the lights up, and reminisced about the Summersault Festival tour from 1995, shouting out the 2026 documentary that was made about it called “The Best Summer”. I need to find this to give it a watch. Grohl mentioned how grateful they are to be lucky enough to come back so many times, including for the one offs, and that to thank Brisbane for their support of the band, they were going to play as many songs as they could, until they were kicked off stage. And that sentiment was not wrong at all. He asked for a sing along on ‘These Days’, and held the pause on the song on the “it’s easy for you to say” line, really soaking in the adulation from the crowd.
‘Walk’ was massive, as it always is when they play it, and Grohl shouted out the 57 year old men in the crowd that will know every word to the next song they’re going to play, which is the first song off the first record, as ‘This Is A Call’ played. We got ‘No Son of Mine’ off 2021’s ‘Medicine at Midnight’, before the band moved to “the scene of the crime” on Stage B where Dave fell over. Dave joked about past shows where he’s fallen on stage, and off it and broken his leg, but he’s never eaten shit before a single song has been played, and joked about how Brisbane was seeing history tonight. He introduced the idea of Stage B, and it being the acoustic stage, to get up close and intimate with songs that mean a lot to them. He mentioned the first song from this set was big in Germany, and wondered how big it was here, as they played ‘Wheels’. And yes Dave, that song was MASSIVE here.
Foo Fighters – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
The next song he played, Grohl spoke about writing it when he was in Nirvana, in an apartment him and Kurt shared, where he would grab Kurts left handed fucking guitar, and write a song called “Marigold”. It took him six years to put that song together, and it’s so cool that it’s finally seeing daylight properly. With a cheers and a beer, he introduced the butt shaker dancing song, ‘The Window’, before telling everyone to come to his house party. We got another story about the music video for ‘Big Me’ being a parody of Mentos commercials, and that they actually recorded the video in Australia when they were on tour here, which is a neat fact I didn’t know. The band retired back to the main stage, and left Grohl along on B Stage for ‘Under You’, a song Dave loves to play alone.
Returning back to the main stage, without tripping this time, Grohl ran for the start of ‘Your Favourite You’, before dumping water over his head for ‘Run’, which again, was an absolutely gun display of drumming from Rubin. Next up was the band introductions, and this was probably the best moment of the night for me. Dave sat back for a minute to showcase the raw talent in this band, and played snippets from each member’s other bands, as tribute to their hard work when they were not touring with him. First up, it was guitarist Chris Shiflett’s band No Use for a Name getting some shine, with a cover of ‘Invincible’, before moving on to Nate Mendel’s band, Sunny Day Real Estate, where they ripped out ‘Seven’.
Foo Fighters – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
In my favorite part of this bit, keyboardist Rami Jaffee got the shine as they played ‘One Headlight’ by The Wallflowers, which is a song I have loved for literal decades. Pat Smear’s The Germs was next, with a cover of ‘Manimal’, before closing out on something truly insane, as Ilan Rubin and Dave Grohl switched places, with Rubin on Guitar and Grohl on drums for a cover of ‘Tap Dancing in a Minefield’ by The New Regime, Rubin’s band before joining Nine Inch Nails in 2009. This was insane to me, because I never thought I’d hear ANYTHING from The New Regime live. To see this though, insane. I loved it.
As Grohl returned to the front of the stage, he simpled stated “Monkey Wrench, let’s go” as ‘Monkey Wrench’ set the crowd off, in a purely onslaught of hits that just didn’t stop coming. He got the crowd to scream, before he did the scream in the song, feining a little anxiety that he couldn’t do it as well as the crowd did. Also, this song in particular, had drums so heavy and full on, I literally felt the 521 section I was sitting in, shake. It was insane. ‘Breakout’ got the big singalong on the chorus, and with a big thank you from Grohl, the lights dimmed for a somber moment, as Dave spoke about how special the next song was to them, and that they play it every night to remember fallen drummer, Taylor Hawkins. “This song is called Aurora” he simply states, as Brisbane sang along with him.
Foo Fighters – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
It was creeping close to 10pm, and I was sure the noise ordinance would be hitting soon. So I had no idea how much longer the band would be on stage for. I thought the threat earlier of “we’ll play until they kick us off the stage” was becoming more of a promise than a gag. Grohl thanked Brisbane, and sent a special shout out to the Gold Coast. He mentioned that he did a little time there, referencing the story of how he got busted for drunk driving a scooter after a session on the drink after Big Day Out one year, before saying “sorry, I spent a little time there”, as the crowd laughed and ‘Best of You’ closed out the main set.
The band left and came back for an encore, to which Dave fiddled with his hair for a moment before the next song. He mentioned how he’s pretty sure the band have never played this song live, except for when they recorded it for the BBC 30 years ago. But he was convinced that the song would be making it’s live debut in Brisbane, as they ripped out one more cover song, this time of ‘Baker Street’ by Gerry Rafferty, which was mind blowing to see live. We got one more old one with ‘Hey, Johnny Park!’, before a final goodbye with “Everlong’ closing out the show.
Foo Fighters – Suncorp Stadium – photos by Bec Harbour
Foo Fighters were on stage for nearly three hours, and honestly, this was the quickest three hours of my life. They crammed 30 songs into three hours, had Brisbane sweating like it was a mid-January cricket match, and Brisbane continued to ask for more. When I spoke earlier about how much Australia loves this band, I don’t think I can ever truly say just how much, because I don’t think the word actually exists yet. If Tony Stark’s line of “I Love You, 3000” is comparable, for Australia, it’s “We Love You, One Million”.
