Updated 23.33 | Published 23.20
CONCERT Foo Fighters are the musical equivalent of hot dogs with bread – simple, unpretentious and damn good.
But a three-hour long marathon performance is a bit difficult to digest.
Even for a bunch of exuberantly enthusiastic rock veterans in rudely fresh form.
Foo Fighters
Place: Strawberry Arena, Stockholm. Audience: 42,349 (so not really sold out). Length: Three hours. Best: “Marigold”, “Times like these” and “The teacher”. “Your favorite toy”, which looks towards Idles and Viagra Boys, can also become a new live favourite. Worst: “Wheels” may roll on straight to the trash can. And at the risk of sounding like a bore – I think three hours is way too long. Question: What magical source do the band members draw energy from?
In a new episode of the entertaining Youtube series “Hot Ones Versus” sheep Dave Grohl the question of what is his cringiest (that is, most embarrassing) line. His response:
“Take your pick. I swear there are so many I hate.”
Foo Fighters frontman ultimately chooses a lyric from “DOA” from the album “In your honor” which he considers “fucking stupid”.
Grohl is the first person to admit that not everything he touches turns into divine ear candy. That there is a fair share of polished poo sausages along with shiny gold nuggets such as “All my life”, “The pretender” and “Best of you”.
But if there was a Nobel Prize in live music, the Foo Fighters would have claimed it long ago. Few acts make arena-compatible rock feel as alive, as potent and as redolent of relevance as the Foo Fighters live. In the moment, it doesn’t matter at all that the American act hasn’t topped the sales charts or released a unanimously acclaimed album in nearly 20 years.
The gig at Strawberry Arena is no exception.
As soon as Grohl rushes onto the stage, in the usual order of a child about to meet Santa Claus for the first time, the collective heart rate and dopamine levels inside the arena rise. The bassist Nate Mendelthe keyboardist Rami Jaffeethe guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear as well as the new drummer Ilan Rubin leisurely saunters onto the stage while Grohl runs around screaming into the microphone.
The singer is a Duracell bunny on cocaine. Before the opening “All my life” is even over, the 57-year-old singer almost screamed out his voice and probably also got in his daily 12,000 steps.
– I love rock ‘n’ roll music!, growls Grohl in the middle of a fiery intense “The pretender”.
No shit, Sherlock. As if anyone ever doubted that.
Grohl doesn’t go so far as to break his leg tonight – of course he brings up the gig at Ullevi eleven years ago before playing “Walk” (“I broke my fucking leg!”) – but the frontman still gives the impression that anything can happen in the coming hours. After all, the song list is reshuffled from night to night and the conversation feels far from rehearsed.
And then the rock locomotive rushes on. Way above the recommended maximum speed, for a full three hours (!). Through the self-titled album debut, via the appreciated “The color and the shape” and “There is nothing left to lose”, on to contemporary album material (however, it is only at song 17 as material from the latest record “Your favorite toy” torn off). The band has, just as Grohl points out, a 30-year-long song catalog to draw from.
About an hour into the marathon performance, the pace slows considerably. The band stands at the far end of the stage’s runway for an acoustic detour to, among others, “Wheels”, “Marigold” and “Big me”. It will be a much-needed respite for everyone involved.
“Marigold” especially stands out from the crowd. A live version that Grohl wrote in the meantime Nirvana and which he released under the pseudonym Lazy! 1992, before it ended up on the B-side of the “Heart-shaped box” single. The song’s finely tuned main melody is as intoxicating live as it is on record.
But then to the big elephant in the room – that it isn’t Taylor Hawkins who sits at the drum set. The drummer’s sudden death in 2022 was a heavy blow to rock in general and to the Foo Fighters in particular.
Ilan Rubin, who has recently replaced the replacement Josh Freeseis an explosive drummer, at least as energetic as his new bandmates. In “Rope”, “No son of mine” and “Monkey wrench” he sometimes steals the show from Grohl & co. And during “Tap dancing in a minefield”, which is pushed into a medley that pays tribute to the band members’ previous bands, he also takes over the vocals and guitar playing while Grohl is relegated to the drum set.
But he’s no Taylor Hawkins. That is, a blonde tornado with a glowing interplay with Grohl.
Three hours is also too long. It will never be Guns N’ Roses-farce of the spectacle, but the sextet would probably win by peeling away, like, 60 minutes of song material.
The last hour of the gig is a labored breath on a hospital bed. Large parts of the audience have lost a lot of momentum just in time for “Monkey wrench”, especially the standing fans on the floor, but luckily “Nothing at all” soon sweeps in like an invigorating slap in the face.
So also “Best of you”, the last song before three encores. Grohl has basically managed to break his voice by that point, but the audience is more than happy to support with a strong sing-along that is likely to be heard all the way to Gävle.
It’s damn brave to follow up with the ten-minute long prog gem “The teacher”, a touching tribute to Grohl’s mother Virginia Grohlwho died just a few months after Hawkins.
But the Foo Fighters aren’t like any other band out there. For both good and bad.
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ALL THE SONGS
1. All my life 2. The pretender 3. Rope 4. Learn to fly 5. Rescued 6. Stacked actors 7. These days 8. Walk 9. My hero 10. This is a call 11. No son of mine (including a short clip of Motörhead’s “Ace of spades”) 12. Wheels 13. Big me 14. Under you 15. Times like these 16. Generator 17. Your favorite toy 18. Spit shine 19. Invincible / One headlight / Manimal / Tap dancing in a minefield 20. Monkey wrench 21. Nothing at all / I’ll stick around 22. Hey, Johnny Park! 23. Aurora 24. Caught in the echo 25. Best of you Encore: 26. The teacher 27. Exhausted 28. Everlong
