Dave Grohl ignites crowds at the Foo Fighters live show
Just outside Ballarat, 24-year-old Stuart Janetzski spends his time working at
his cattle farm.
He’s a staunch Geelong supporter having attended 25 out of 25 games in the 2009 AFL season and he also enjoys a spot of live music when he can get the time, admitting he has been to hundreds of live shows.
But despite these other passions, Stuart has one passion that supersedes all others, his unfaltering love for five North American rock and rollers.
Stuart loves the Foo Fighters.
On the 28 November this year, Stuart will head from sleepy Ballarat to Perth, thus beginning a rock and roll journey in which he will drive more than 4700km between Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and the Gold Coast.
Over the course of three weeks Stuart will attend all six stadium shows included in the Foo Fighters upcoming national tour.
Such an enormous undertaking was a decision Stuart didn’t actually find that difficult to make.
“I first saw them in 2005 and fell in love with the way Dave Grohl hosts a night, a few hundred live music gigs later, and he’s still the best I’ve seen,” he says.
Stuart’s passion for the Foos began with him hearing the odd single on the radio during the 1990’s, but acknowledges that it was the release of 2003’s Grammy Award winning One By One that affirmed the Foo Fighters as one of his favorite bands.
“I never properly looked into them until their album One by One was released in 2003 after hearing songs such as All My Life and Times Like These”.
Like many avid Foo Fighters fans though, Stuart’s heart belongs to the bands 1997 release The Colour and the Shape which remains their highest selling album to date.
“I have had The Colour and The Shape as my favorite album of all time since I first heard it. I still listen to it in full most weeks,” he says.
The Foo Fighters announced in July that they would be returning to Australia for the second time this year come November.
This followed the band touring earlier in the year to promote their new album Wasting Light,during which time they also performed shows to aid the Brisbane flood disaster appeal.
For the November tour Grohl and his Foos have employed the help of long time collaborators Tenacious D, fronted by tomfooling rock and roll diehard Jack Black; who blew Australian fans away when he toured the country in 2007.
Tenacious D’s involvement in the tour was another major draw card Stuart says, making his decision to commit to following the tour even easier, as it was something he admits he considered many times.
“I know a few friends that have followed their favourite bands around the country, I love their dedication and wanted to do the same.
“Earlier this year when I attended the floods benefit gig in Brisbane… That night just made me want more, when Dave promised they’d be back with massive three hour rock shows,” Stuart says.
Almost all of the scheduled dates for the concerts have sold out, however the announcement on the Foo Fighters website of a second show at Melbourne’s AAMI park means Melburnians still have a chance to witness this rock and roll juggernaut in the flesh.
For Stuart though, it’s now just a matter of counting down the days and preparing for the madness that is to come.
