As Tone Deaf reported yesterday, Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah had an exchange of words by proxy with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, after the rocker had a veiled dig at the touring mogul during a recent Adelaide performance at Coopers Stadium.

Following the news that Soundwave would no longer return to the South Australian capital and Maddah’s claims that “nothing has worked in Adelaide in the recent past” in terms of rock and metal music, Grohl issued a rather extravagant response.

As Rip It Up reports, midway through Foos’ performance at Coopers Stadium, Grohl addressed the crowd, saying, “I was reading the paper the other day and it was saying nobody in Adelaide comes to shows anymore, the music culture is dead, and a band like Foo Fighters can’t sell tickets.”

The frontman then requested the house lights be turned up, proclaiming, “Yep, looks pretty fucking good to me. This is for all those promoters who think Adelaide doesn’t have a fucking rock scene.”

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After a fan tweeted at Maddah with an image of the Adelaide Foos show, depicting a packed Coopers Stadium, the promoter responded by insisting that the show was so well attended only after the promoter “gave away a lot of tickets, sold some at $50 to fill venue and get Dave his bragging rights!”

While it’s not known where Maddah got his information from, when Tone Deaf reached out to Frontier, they replied with a statement refuting the promoter’s claim that any tickets were sold for $50 or that the gig was “papered” with comp tickets.

“Frontier can confirm no $50 tickets were sold for the Foo Fighters in Adelaide,” they write in a statement. “There was also definitely no need to paper the gig with comp tickets. The event was a massive success attendance wise and Frontier couldn’t be happier with the result.”

“It was great to see Adelaide out in force enjoying a night of awesome rock with the Foo Fighters, Rise Against and The Delta Riggs.”

The exchange follows an interview Maddah gave to FasterLouder, in which he cited a sluggish economy and youth unemployment in Adelaide as having the biggest impact on ticket sales in the city. “I’ve had to cut down the club and theatre shows I’ve been putting through Adelaide simply because nothing’s selling,” he said.

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