Foo Fighters, o2 Arena, 17/11/2007

So who cares if your last two albums were the worst?

Foo Fighters are a live event that everyone must see. And the amount of times they've come to London surely means nearly everyone has seen them.

But if you haven't, I urge you to buy a ticket to their next tour, and to always have £40 on standyby to do so (EDIT: In fact, they have literally just announced that they are playing Wembley Stadium in June 2008), because these guys almost always pull it out of the bag, mixing it up with something different every tour, every big show. So, with me seeing them for the fifth time tonight, I was starting to know what to expect.

After a lacklustre set from a Scottish band I can't remember the name of (although ironically, it seems as if they played their best song as I was queuing at the bar), and a set-cum-lecture from Serj Tankian, dressed like an even more evil Colonel Sanders and with a band dressed like professional mourners. His was not only was heavily taken from his album "Elect the Dead", but with the oh-so-familiar sound of his former band System of A Down also.

Kicking off with two songs from the new album "Let It Die" and lead single "The Pretender", Foo Fighters quickly found their feet as the then crashed into classics "Times Like These" and "Breakout". Before long the crowd were putty in Dave "STILL the nicest guy in rock" Grohl's hands as he made sure everyone knew "this isn't one of those shows where we just play for an hour and fifteen minutes, oh no, we're here for a few more hours..."

Then mixing up some "old shit, some new shit, some acoustic shit, and some rock shit" throughout the night including songs "Stacked Actors" and "Learn to Fly", about halfway through Dave Grohl lead the rest of the band as well as all of those who apeared on the Skin and Bones tour, including former guitarist and living legend Pat Smear, into an acoustic session in the centre of the crowd, on a stage that was lowered from the roof.

This also included a quick cameo from Queen veterans Brian May and Roger Taylor who played the Queen song "39", little over a year since their appearance at Hyde Park together playing "Tie Your Mother Down". Dave then proceeded to introduce the now larger band, including Smear, an organist and a violinist as well as inviting percussionist Drew Hester to perform a triangle solo for the crowd.

After wrapping up the acoustic mini-set, which included the songs "Skin and Bones" and "Cold Day In The Sun" from the second disc of In Your Honor, as well as a version of my personal favourite "My Hero".

Long before this got tiresome, the band were soon back on the main stage with some "rock shit" which included "DOA" and debut single "This Is A Call" before finishing the main set with belter "All My Life".

After some mysterious footage on the video screens, Dave Grohl's face turned up, appearing to ask if anyone wanted anymore songs. After eventually agreeing to playing four more songs, Dave, Taylor, Nate and Chris, who appeared to have based his look tonight on legendary Crystal Maze presenter Richard O'Brien came back out and played five more songs, most of which were from their debut self-titled album, including the likes of "Weenie Beenie" and "For All The Cows", the band finished their slightly extended five song encore with the lead single from In Your Honor, "Best Of You".

Although the overall impression was that perhaps they began their set with a better selection of songs than they finished with, overall they played songs from every Foo Fighters "era" with what with any other band could be described as a greatest hits set. However, the songs from Foo Fighters sit perfectly alongside the new songs from Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace and are played with such vigour that youd be forgiven for thinking that all these songs are classics.

Which bring me back to my first point, in that regardless of the fact that the last two albums have not been quite to my taste, and listening to Foo Fighters acoustically seems to be, in theory at least, a contradiction in terms, they pull out of the bag time and again.

Tonight was the fifth time I saw them, and while at times I was dissapointed with the setlist (just the next night they would play their Arcade Fire cover "Keep the Car Running" and bring up Serj Tankian onstage to play Dead Kennedys' "Holidays in Cambodia") or often frustated with the crowd (when some guys got bored with the acoustic set, so started moshing out to anything), I have never, ever been dissapointed with the show or with the band. They always bring it out the bag.