Gig Review: Finally Finding Fun in the Foos - Dave Grohl’s Long-Running Project Rocks Wellington (Again!) And I Am There For It - In All Senses - This Time.

I have a long-running love/hate relationship with the long-running Foo Fighters and their faithful fans. But it was all put to the side for this gig, the best pure statement of what they are good at.

Foo Fighters

Sky Stadium, Wellington

Saturday, January 27

I have an interesting history with the Foo Fighters. You might typify it as some sort of love/hate thing. But I really just drifted out of fandom - because there’s so much music and so little time, and I grew tired of their sound. But then, I drifted back into…not quite fandom, but some sort of appreciation, with the last two or three records. There’s a whole chuck of music there - the middle of their career, when they became a beloved stadium act around the world - that isn’t really for me. I once, cruelly, described it as “Panel Beater music for Accountants”. But, as with Bruce Springsteen, as with U2, as with Coldplay, and a handful of other bands, the Foos are an undeniably great stadium act for their own fans, and by virtue of being proper rockstars, proper entertainers, decent-enough musicians, and with a now 28-year catalogue, they have enough in the bank to please most all-comers on the night.

Six years ago, to the day, I saw the Foos in Sydney (part of the lure for me that night, was finally getting to see Weezer as the opening act). Foo Fighters won me over, in the end, even as I stood for the first hour with a face like a grump, barely budging as songs like Best of You and Times Like These went over huge with the fans. But something happened, and one third of the way through a three-hour show that night, I was won over by the absurdity and fun of the Big Stadium Gig.

Photo courtesy of The NZ Herald

So it was time to see the Foos again in my hometown. First time, for me, since early 1996, when, on the back of Dave Grohl releasing a solo album of his Nirvana demos and songwriting rehearsal attempts, he formed a band and took that great “small” record on the road.

I guess, I knew what to expect a bit more this time out, I was also going as a father (but my 12yo is every bit the fair weather Foos fan that I am - he was into the idea of going purely to see a stadium rock gig, and I want to facilitate his musical education if and when I can).

So with that in mind, this was my favourite of the four times I’ve seen the Foos. Did I love every song? Hell, I didn’t even know every song - that middle period still leaves me a bit cold, but there are songs I can get on board with in the moment. The Pretender and Times Like These felt huge tonight, anthemic. Opener, All My Life is just rock-riff fantastic; perfect stadium opener, a rallying call for the fans. And No Son of Mine kept that style of boogie alive, interpolating the riffs from Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Metallica’s Enter Sandman in the first of many showcases for the showmanship that Grohl now so effortlessly exudes. He had the audience eating out of his palm.

I really enjoyed the material from 1999’s There Is Nothing Left To Loose. Which was a little bit surprising. That was right where I left the Foo Fighters - at the time. I couldn’t get on board with much, beyond a song or two, from any of the albums over the last 20 years, but I didn’t expect to feel pangs of nostalgia hearing rip-roaring versions of Generator and Breakout. These songs were simple. But huge. And that’s actually when the Foos are at their best, lithe as a unit, whipping simple songs into shape. Learn To Fly is a song I once loved, then hated, and have recently reconnected with - so that was obviously going to go down well on the night (and it did). And later in the set, Aurora was magnificent - a reminder that Foo Fighters can think outside the riff, can move away from their default setting. It was also served up as a touching tribute to Taylor Hawkins, the first tune Grohl and he co-wrote, and Taylor’s favourite, so in the setlist every night. Then and now.

My favourite Foos album has always been their second - The Color and The Shape. That’s one of the great band records of the mid/late 1990s for mine. It’s the sort of record you just dig right into, packed with hits, and plenty of great album cuts too. Its pillars are the bedrock of any Foos set, as they were tonight. Monkey Wrench so tight, and yet another chance for the new drummer, Josh Freese, to really show his chops. Same with the eventual encore, Everlong. It remains the greatest Foo Fighters song. I’m so sure of that. My Hero too, another gem of a song.

The band behind Grohl is good, of course. But really it’s largely irrelevant that Chris Shiflett (lead/rhythm guitar since 2002) and Nate Mendel (bassist since 1996) are there. They don’t make mistakes, and they therefore are loved by fans - for their longevity - but they inject no personality into the music. You might argue it is largely personality-less music, or open for the fans to attach their memories and movement to. Pat Smear (guitar) is possibly even less important to the sound and vibe of the band - but his role is as a mascot for Grohl. He’s a nod to Nirvana, and to bands from before, I’ve also always felt it was admirable for Grohl to look after him, to provide for him, to give him this spot; like a lifetime achievement award.

No, it’s entirely about Grohl. And the drummer. Grohl of course is a drummer - so he needs a safe pair of hands. And a foil. Taylor Hawkins was his foil. Taylor was a great-enough player and had the charisma and showmanship that is largely missing from the rest of the band. So this tour was always going to be interesting - in the wake of his loss. But, much as I could enjoy Taylor’s charm and musicality, he also contributed to the absurdity of what used to be the Foo Fighters Stadium Act. When I saw them in Sydney, he shot up 20 feet in the air on a hydraulic drum riser, for a largely redundant solo. Sure, he also stood at the front of the stage and brilliantly sang Bowie and Queen’s Under Pressure. But, you know, you don’t exactly need that…

Josh Freese, his replacement, is a session drummer that has played with everyone. I mean everyone! He was on Bic Runga’s debut album. He was on the Barbie soundtrack. In between that he was a touring member of Guns N Roses, Devo and Nine Inch Nails (sometimes seemingly all at once) and he has played on records by Joe Cocker, Katy Perry, and, well, everyone inbetween…

He is the safest pair of hands possible, and a journeyman musician with a lot of similarities to Grohl (and I guess Hawkins) in terms of being a multi-instrumentalist and someone that has cameoed and collaborated with so many of the biggest names in music. (It’s also 24 years, almost to the day, since I last saw Freese play live - that was with Nine Inch Nails and it was nice to hear a snippet of that band’s music played by the Foos in their intro of Freese).

He is also absolutely dynamic behind the kit playing Foo Fighters songs. Electric. The camera loves him too. The big screen full of clips of Freese setting up and delivering each and every song. His playing was the (not so) secret glue. That safety net of having him driving it all allows Grohl to just bask in what he does best: Be a great frontman!

Maybe, of the 25 songs they played, I only loved or liked half, maybe some of the other half didn’t even resonate at all, but those are perfectly fine numbers. I also think Grohl was looking tired, and we were maybe cheated of a song or two in Wellington (no Big Me for instance). But I just appreciated the skill and effort of a big stadium band doing the big stadium show. They hit it out of the park more often than they didn’t - and I enjoyed seeing the fans really live and breathe every moment of nearly every song.

There were some huge singalongs - and that’s the power of a great stadium show. You are there as a fan, or with an interest (hopefully). But you are also there as part of a pack, there’s something about being in a herd that knows almost every word and lives in anticipation for the moment to join in.

There were nice surprises too. The Led Zep-esque prog-ish 10 minute epic, The Teacher, one of a small handful of songs played from the band’s latest album, was amazing, even if it might have tested the patience of some just wanting to bark out the words they know.. Grohl’s solo acoustic instrumental, Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners is a nice deviation from the norm, as was Aurora, as was the band grooving softly on Statues. Another new song, Nothing At All, from last year’s But Here We Are, had new wave vibes and showed that for all Grohl’s growling and screaming (and cursing in his between-song banter) alongside his metal credentials he knows a great pop hook. It was also welcome to hear that, inside a big power-pop crunch, when taken all the way back to the band’s debut album for This Is A Call - one of the songs that started it all.

This tour wasn’t so much a victory lap, as a chance for Grohl to get back on the horse. He seemed tired, but he gave it very nearly his all. Because that’s what he knows to do. And this is what he does. He isn’t ready to retire from playing live, nor to hang up this project. It was a solid 2.5 hours of the band’s very best material. Even the songs I don’t personally care for. I was far more into it than when I saw them in 2000 and 2018. And most importantly, I’m just glad I was there. Live music has a power. Being part of an approving audience has an energy. Seeing the stadium glowing with phone torches and nearly in unison chanting about Times Like These and hoping for the Best of You was, at times, downright touching.

Here’s the full setlist: