Foo Fighters at the Concorde

Foo Fighters - Brighton Concorde 2

So this is how it played out. Bennett and I get to the venue around 4:20pm. Massive queues at the bar. Large television camera point towards the rear of the hall so the capacity must be reduced to around 400 lucky punters. We move to the left hand side of the stage as there seems to be plenty of room there. Zane Lowe is DJing behind us, warming up the crowd. At 5pm on the dot Chris Moyles comes on to introduce the Foo Fighters - the place erupts. We've got the larger band for this show - Pat Smear is back on guitar and there's a new cellist with them called Jesse. They open with new single The Pretender and it's immediately clear this is going to be something special. The sound, the lights, the atmosphere and Dave's banter with the audience... well, it just doesn't get better than this, especially when you're up that close. "I've been here since 7:30 this morning," Dave announces early on, then adding, "It's not the first time I've been at a bar at 7:30 in the morning, but it's definitely the busiest bar I've been to at that time." They play a number of classics from the just re-issued album The Colour And The Shape including See You, My Hero and Everlong and surprise everyone with a storming cover of Arcade Fire's Keep The Car Running. There are also a few new songs getting an airing - "This is the first time we're playing a lot of new stuff," says Dave. "I hate to think of it as a rehearsal, but it is... But it's the best rehearsal ever!" He also says that the band love playing these tiny gigs and that they'd like to play in Brighton again soon (well, we can hope...). The 70 minute set concludes with a triple whammy of Monkeywrench, Best Of You and All My Life which has everyone moshing and singing along. And that's it all over. 6:10pm - time for another pint and then back out into bright daylight. Unquestionably the best gig of the year.

You can catch some of the Foo Fighters show at the Concorde 2 on BBCi from Monday.