I’ve been lucky enough to see the Foo Fighters a couple of times in Los Angeles over the years. First was in 2006 at The Pantages, in the shows that wound up on their CD/DVD release Skin and Bones. And then in 2018 at the second (and presumably final) year of their Cal Jam Festival. The one where Nirvana “reunited” courtesy of Joan Jett and Deer Tick’s John McCauley sharing lead duties. But this – their first of two shows in Los Angeles over the weekend – was my first time seeing them in a stadium in the States. And, most notably, my first time seeing them without the late, great, Taylor Hawkins on drums.
While the band hail from all over the country, Los Angeles has become the band’s home, which is something they pointed to back when I saw them in 2006. And tonight, lead singer Dave Grohl told the crowd “it feels good to be home for these shows”, during the almost three hour set. And with only a few dates left on their massive year and a half long tour in support of their latest record, I’m sure they’re also happy to have an end in sight.
But they showed no signs of fatigue, and the night would go on to be one of the best sets I’ve ever seen from the band. They looked to be having a blast as they delved into tracks from their entire catalogue. And it was a lot more than just the hits. This was a crowd pleasing set for fans old and new, that ended with fireworks over the BMO Stadium – their first time playing the 22,000+ capacity venue.
Opening the show bright and early at 5:30pm were Australia’s own Amyl and the Sniffers. They’re on a massive US tour at the moment, fitting in select dates with the likes of the Foos and Sleater-Kinney, who they supported in Portland just two nights earlier. I also caught them last week in Buffalo at a headline show of their own, selling out the 1,200 cap Babeville, a church co-owned by Ani DiFranco. They are lapping up the support over in the States and are showing no signs of slowing down with three more sold out headline shows in California this week. The crowd didn’t give them all that much to work with – a 5:30pm slot on a Friday is no easy task – but they put on a fantastic show and did the job assigned to them: set the atmosphere just right.
Also ready for the assignment were Sweden’s The Hives, playing their last date with the Foo Fighters on this tour tonight. I’ve seen this band more times than I can count over the years (last was in an epic co-headline tour with Refused in San Diego in 2019), and they always step up to impress. Howlin’ Pelle and his Hives jumped between songs old and new, as they told the growing crowd that their job was to get us ready for the Foo Fighters, “but you aren’t ready yet!”. They truly are a magnificent hype band.
It’s hard to imagine anyone not knowing The Hives, but they make no assumptions of this themselves, making sure we knew that tonight, we were being introduced to our “new favourite band!”. They’ve been doing this for 30 years – they know what the people want – they freeze in place, there are jump kicks a plenty, they whip the crowd into a frenzy. Pelle moves into the crowd and knocks phones out of peoples hands, while wearing great suits and stealing beers. He tells the crowd, “after 6 or 7 songs that’s when the poison starts working and everyone loves The Hives”, and then jumps into “Hate To Say I Told You So”, and I guess that’s when the poison starts working.
“Tick Tick Boom” closes the set, and they leave the stage to Carly Simon’s “No One Does It Better”, after bowing with their ninja roadies, as the massive HIVES lettering behind them flash and change colours. It felt hard to argue with Carly Simon in that moment. I will never tire of seeing this band.
And finally it was time for Foo Fighters to take the stage at one of LA’s newest stadiums. The venue – which opened in 2018 predominantly for soccer matches (with Will Ferrell and Magic Johnson amongst the owners) – will be hosting the Olympics in four years. But tonight it was the Foo’s time to make some records of their own, and the band came out swinging with the now classic “All My Life” setting the stage alight in red, as Dave screamed “are you fucking ready!?” through his iconic growl. And we were – The Hives assured us after all.
“I’m contractually obligated to kick your fucking ass for three hours”, Dave promised the crowd, saying they would play as many songs as possible in the process. And they did just that. It was truly masterclass in rock n’ roll performance.
Including tracks off all of the band’s eleven albums would be no easy feat, but they gave it a red hot go, with every studio album but Sonic Highways getting a look. They even included the mentioned “Skin & Bones” in acoustic mode, this time with Dave on acoustic guitar and Rami Jaffee on accordion. “Under You” off the new album also was given the acoustic treatment. It was one of four tracks off their newest record, But Here We Are, to be included. But perhaps most surprisingly, their first four LPs made up almost half of the set.
The band’s tribute to Lemmy, “No Son of Mine”, was fantastic live, and was the second track of the night – with the band weaving in a bit of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” before asking the crowd “do you love this rock and roll? You know what? Me too! I’m just checking”.
“Times Like These” started with a big singalong before going into full rock mode, as did “Generator” and “Breakout”, classic tracks off of There Is Nothing Left to Lose which all sounded as good as ever; the band giving room for solos and elongated jams – something that I had felt was missing from their sets the last couple of times I saw them. At least in the sense of leaning on the older material. It drew me right back to my first times seeing them in the early 2000s, which was quite a treat. But even their newer songs, like “La Dee Da” and “The Sky Is A Neighbourhood”, evoked similar feelings.
In one of the best moments of the night – something which has become a staple of many a Foo Fighters show – each member of the band got to introduce themselves and play a classic song. Chris led us in a AC/DC “Thunderstruck” chant. Nate led us into “Sabotage”. Pat Smear (co-founder of The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas) did some “Blitzkrieg Bop”. Josh did a bit of “Whip It!”, because he was in Devo (and a Disneyland band in the 80s, as Dave told the crowd). And they did NIN’s “Head Like A Hole”, because he was in that band too. Meanwhile, Rami got all synthy, to which Dave said “I don’t think that’s going to be on the next record…”. And then it was time for “My Hero”.
A tribute to Taylor Hawkins came in the form of “Aurora”, which is said to have been his favourite Foo Fighters song. They’ve reintroduced the beautiful There Is Nothing Left To Lose track into the set every night on this tour for that purpose. And while an emotional moment, they didn’t dwell on it or milk it. It was a moment to celebrate his memory, before blasting into “Best of You”, closing the two and a half hour main set.
The night then ended with Dave on a double neck guitar, with their latest album’s epic 10 minute track “The Teacher”, a tribute to his late Mum Virginia (who I was lucky enough to meet at BIGSOUND years back, and last saw side stage watching Tenacious D – what a legend!), which was taken even further, and ended with the lights moving around the whole arena.
The night closed with “Everlong”, which is fully back in rock mode after many years of being acoustic or partially acoustic. And now they’ve even got fireworks! There could have been no better way to end the show.
After years of experimenting with different album concepts, putting on festivals, making movies and TV shows – for me this was the first show in the better part of a decade that felt like a “classic” Foo Fighters show. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed the experimentation and evolution of this band every step of the way – I’ve never not loved the band live – but it was thrilling to see a set that was as unpredictable, and as jam filled as I remember those early shows to be. Or maybe I’m just feeling nostalgic?
They are one of the best rock bands to ever do it, and tonight was a show I’ll never forget.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
FULL SETLIST
All My Life
No Son of Mine (with Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” snippet)
Rescued
The Pretender
Walk
Times Like These
Generator
La Dee Da
Breakout
—
Band Intro Snippets inc.
Thunderstruck (AC/DC) > Sabotage (Beastie Boys) >
Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones) > Whip It (Devo) >
Head Like A Hole (Nine Inch Nails)
—
My Hero
The Sky Is a Neighborhood
Learn to Fly
Arlandria
These Days
Skin and Bones
Under You
Nothing at All (with The Beatles’ “Blackbird” snippet)
This Is a Call
Monkey Wrench
Aurora
Best of You
Encore:
The Teacher
Everlong
This performance took place on Friday 9th August at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. The Foo Fighters played their second LA show tonight, and then have three more dates on this run. Get the dates and details HERE. This show was the final one to see Amyl and the Sniffers and The Hives in support, with L7, The Pretenders and Alex G on the remainder of the dates. Amyl, meanwhile, have their own headline shows in Los Angeles, get the details HERE.
While in LA the author stayed at The Hoxton, Downtown LA with the kind support of Discover Los Angeles. Photo by the author.
