Foo Fighting
Trip Start
Feb 16, 2011
1
62
113
Trip End
Jun 11, 2012
Where I stayed
Econo Lodge Causeway Bay
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Friday, October 28, 2011
My housemate Neil had 2 spare tickets to the Foo Fighters concert in Calgary this week, so Steffie and I organised a rental car to go down there. I had Wednesday night off and I actually went out on the town which is somewhat of a rareity. We started off having a pasta meal at Banff Life before heading to Wild Bill's Saloon for a couple of beers and ended up at The Dancing Sasquatch drinking Time Machines. These were a $9 combination of 3 shots (don't ask me what) plus a Monster Energy drink so it was designed to keep the dance floor pumping. Needless to say it was a big night.
The next day I got up around midday and got ready to go to Calgary. We left Banff at 1pm and after a short stop in Canmore at the A&W, we arrived at the motel around 3pm. After checking in, we jumped back into the car and headed north to the Walmart at the Northland Village Mall. Banff has quite a few tourist shops, but no useful shops like a decent size department store or grocery store. All of the outdoor shops are a bit pricey as well so when you have a car in Calgary, it is shopping time! We definitely made the most of it and went into the Market Mall as well so Steffie could buy a swimsuit. We had dinner in the food court (there is only one small one in Banff) and headed into the city to go to the concert.
Calgary can be a maze of highways and one way streets at the best of times let alone when there is an event on at the Saddledome. Usually the Saddledome is only where they play ice hockey games, but they held the concert there as well. We paid a high price for close parking and got lost in the maze of seating around the arena. Eventually we got up to the right level and Neil found the merchandise stand. It all looked a bit pricey to me so I didn't buy anything, but there were hundreds of people who were. We found our seats which happened to be at the top of the second level (not quite nosebleeds, but almost).
The support band was terrible. The lead singer was throwing himself around on the stage and screaming into the microphone like a toddler tandrum. Thankfully they didn't last too long and the Foo Fighters came on at 9pm. They played an incredible 2 hours and 30 minutes which was an endurance record for any band I've ever seen. The stage setup was pretty cool with rotating screens, a television screen floor and an elevating side stage where Dave Grohl did a few acoustic numbers. The sound acoustics weren't fantastic, but it was still good enough to recognise the songs. It would have been better if we were a bit closer, but it was a good experience and one that I never thought I would get. The Foo Fighters never come to Adelaide...
The traffic out of the Saddledome was a bit of a nightmare, but a McDonalds chocolate thickshake certainly helped round of the evening nicely. We got up around 8am and had a free continental breakfast before heading back to Walmart for a bit more shopping. Our last stop in Calgary was Abominable Sports where Steffie bought some new ski pants. After that we cruised back West on Highway One with a quick grocery stop at Sobeys in Canmore.
I had a bit of an afternoon nap before a couple of us went down to Banff Life for a pizza and scary movie night which was more funny than scary. Then it was back to work...
