After losing both his drummer and his mother in 2022, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl had a lot of healing to do. In LA on Friday, his joyful heart was back on stage.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has long worn his heart on his sleeve, but it’s been a heavy heart in recent years as both Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and Grohl’s mother Virginia died within months of each other in 2022.
But nothing heals more than the power of rock and roll, Grohl would surely agree, and as Foo Fighters returned to Los Angeles on Friday for the first of two nights at BMO Stadium, a wonderful sense of normalcy returned to the stage with them.
This was Foo Fighters first regular tour date in Southern California since 2021. The Taylor Hawkins tribute in September 2022 was raw and emotional. A headlining show at Ohana Festival in 2023 came and went in a softer shade of sorrow.
On Friday, for 24 songs over two hours and 45 minutes, Foo Fighters roared gloriously through three decades of music. Sure, there are songs in the set that reflect the kind of losses that can never be forgotten. But mostly there is joy, the spirit of rock, and a sense that things are good, different, but good again.
The night opened with “All My Life,” its chunky riffs racing along as Grohl ran down the ramp that split fans in the pit, whirling his long hair as he played and sang. “No Son of Mine” followed with the first of many mid-song breaks for Grohl to evangelize on the power of rock.
“Guess what? Guess what?” he shouted as the sold-out stadium cheered loudly. “Foo Fighters came here to kick your ass for three hours. Do you love rock and roll music? I got to know what kind of rock and roll you like!”
He played the introduction to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the crowd cheered more, and the band slipped back into “No Son of Mine” to its finish.
More Foo favorites quickly followed. After the hushed intro of “The Pretender,” the song took off, the chiming guitars of Grohl, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear propelled by new drummer Josh Freese‘s meaty beats. The anthemic “Walk” soared with its message of hope and renewal.
“Times Like These,” done more closely to its acoustic version, built slowly, its message – “It’s times like these you learn to live again / It’s times like these you learn to love again” – repeating until the full rock arrangement took over for the final section. “Breakout” captured some of that early punky energy of the band, wrapping up with Grohl standing at the drum kit trading licks and beats with Freese, both grinning happily at each other.
After more hits, including the ballad “My Hero,” “Learning To Fly” with its power-pop feel, and the anthemic “These Days,” the show took a moment to breathe with a mini-set of acoustic performances on the ramp into the crowd.
“I know a lot of people say they prefer the smaller gigs,” Grohl said with keyboardist Rami Jaffee standing next to him armed with an accordion. “(Bleep) that, I prefer the stadiums. I kinda like to see a sea of people just hanging out. To stand here next to a grown man playing an accordion solo in a soccer stadium? Bucket list – check!”
A solo acoustic guitar performance of “Under You” followed, its chorus – “Think I’m getting over it / There’s no getting over it” – reflecting the grief Grohl felt in the loss of Hawkins.
The back half of the main set roared through early hard rock tracks such as “This Is a Call,” which Grohl introduced by noting the band often played it at early gigs, name-checking the Silver Lake club Spaceland as one, and “Monkey Wrench,” during which he screamed, you screamed, we all screamed though none of us with the remarkable throat-shredding power of Grohl.
“Best Of You” closed out the main set with the biggest of many very loud crowd singalongs, its message of resisting that which would confine you echoing throughout the packed stadium.
“The Teacher,” another of the cathartic new songs from the post-grief 2023 album “But Here We Are,” opened the encore with 12 minutes of swirling rock and roll, its almost prog-rock instrumentals accompanying lyrics inspired by Virginia Grohl, a teacher most of her life.
“Thank you for hanging out with us for the past 30 years,” Grohl said at its finish, smiling happily. “And I hope to do it for 30 more. I’ll be 85 years old screaming my ass off. It won’t be pretty.”
“Everlong,” another of the band’s great anthems – “It’s our “Free Bird,” Grohl said, laughing after someone in the crowd shouted for that Lynyrd Skynyrd classic – closed out the night.
“And I wonder / If everything could ever feel this real forever,” he sang as it reached its final chorus. “If anything could ever be this good again.”
Come back Sunday night. You, Dave, the band can all find out for yourselves.
The Swedish garage rockers the Hives played before Foo Fighters on Friday. Wearing their usual snazzy black suits with appliqued lightning bolts and musical notes, those who got to BMO Stadium early enough were entertained by singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and the band on songs that included “Main Offender,” “Hate To Say I Told You So,” and set-closing “Tick Tick Boom.”
Amyl and the Sniffers played before the Hives to an even smaller crowd – it’s asking a lot to ask people to get to a Friday night show in Los Angeles by 5:30 p.m. – but the Australian pub-punk quartet was energetic fun for those who made it. You’ve got a second chance to catch them when they headline the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 14-15.
