Two nights after playing Marvel Stadium, Foo Fighters will step into Crown LIVE for a one-night performance limited to just 1,250 people, giving Melbourne fans a radically different way to see the band.
by Paul Cashmere
Foo Fighters will follow their Melbourne stadium concert with one of their smallest Australian shows in decades, performing for just 1,250 people at Crown LIVE on 16 November 2026 in a one-night-only concert that will put Dave Grohl and the band within close range of the audience.
The timing is what makes the show particularly unusual. Foo Fighters are scheduled to play Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Saturday 14 November as part of their Take Cover Australian Tour. Just two days later, they will move into the newly opened Crown LIVE for a theatre performance with a capacity a fraction of the stadium crowd.
Crown LIVE holds 1,250 people, making this a rare opportunity to see a band accustomed to stadium stages in a room where the physical distance between performer and audience is dramatically reduced. The venue’s design places the furthest seat approximately 25 metres from the stage.
For Foo Fighters, the significance is less about adding another date to an already extensive Australian itinerary and more about changing the scale of the performance. Dave Grohl has spoken about the appeal of returning to smaller rooms, where the energy of a concert can become more immediate and physical.
“There’s something electric about stripping it all back and getting closer to the fans,” Grohl said of the Crown LIVE performance. He described the opportunity to play a club-sized show as something that excites the band, particularly after performing in some of the world’s largest venues.
That contrast gives the Crown LIVE concert its strongest point of difference. The Marvel Stadium show will be built for a large-scale audience, while the Crown performance will place the same band in an environment where the crowd is small enough to fundamentally change the experience.
The concert also serves as the first major test of Crown LIVE as a new Melbourne entertainment venue. Crown Melbourne has positioned the room as a flexible performance space intended for concerts, theatre productions, comedy and potential artist residencies, rather than as a conventional arena. The Foo Fighters booking provides its most prominent musical launch yet.
Crown Melbourne chief executive Ed Domingo said the venue’s appeal would ultimately be determined by the quality of the experience rather than the size of the audience. Crown LIVE is part of a broader $200 million redevelopment of Crown Melbourne’s Southbank precinct, with the venue designed to bring major Australian and international entertainment into a more intimate setting.
The 16 November concert is also effectively a Melbourne encore to Foo Fighters’ stadium appearance. The band’s Australian run begins in Brisbane on 5 November before moving through Townsville, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Adelaide. The tour then continues into New Zealand and concludes in Perth in January 2027.
Foo Fighters’ Australian history stretches back to their first visit in 1995, when they played Summersault. Over the following three decades, the band moved from clubs to arenas and eventually stadiums, making the return to a 1,250-capacity room an interesting reversal of that trajectory.
The current Foo Fighters lineup features Grohl with Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee and drummer Ilan Rubin. The Australian tour follows the band’s 2023 album But Here We Are, their first album following the 2022 death of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Access to the Crown LIVE show will be handled differently from a conventional concert onsale. Registrations opened on 5 October and close at 11:59pm AEDT on 12 October. Ticketmaster will then conduct the allocation process, with successful and unsuccessful applicants notified on 21 October.
Only one registration is permitted per person, with a maximum request of two tickets. The event is restricted to people aged 18 and over. Ticket prices range from $199 for Bronze seated tickets to $499 for Gold seated or General Admission standing, plus a $10.25 processing fee per transaction.
The result is an unusual proposition for a band whose Australian shows are now routinely measured in tens of thousands of people. On 16 November, Foo Fighters will exchange the scale of Marvel Stadium for a room where only 1,250 people can be inside to see it happen.
Foo Fighters, Loud & Up Close
16 November 2026, Melbourne, Crown LIVE
Registrations: 5 October 2026 to 12 October 2026
Ticket allocation: 15 October 2026 to 16 October 2026
Successful and unsuccessful applicants notified: 21 October 2026
Tickets: General Admission Standing $499, Gold Seated $499, Silver Seated $299, Bronze Seated $199, plus $10.25 processing fee. 18+ event.
https://www.crownmelbourne.com.au/entertainment/crown-live/shows/foo-fighters
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