Review: Foo Fighters rip through hits at the Pete

Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters took all their cues from god-like classic rockers like Led… Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters took all their cues from god-like classic rockers like Led Zeppelin or The Who at the Petersen Events Center Saturday night. Near-blinding strobe lights? Check. Wild, squealing guitar solos? Check. Second stage that lowers from the ceiling into the middle of the crowd connected to a raised path from the main stage over which the band runs to play an acoustic set? Amazingly, they got that one too.

With six albums over the last baker’s dozen of years, Grohl has worked hard to crawl out from under the shadow of his former band – a little trio called Nirvana – and with an explosive performance like this one, there’s no doubt that he’s done it. While Cobain and crew were resistant to the rock-god posing, the Foos fully embrace it. The usual quartet doubled in size to produce a full-speed-ahead rock’n’roll bombast covering the band’s generous helping of hits and giving Grohl plenty of time between them for actually entertaining crowd conversing.

The band began by tearing through hits “Let It Die,” “Pretender,” “Learn to Fly” and a too-rocking take on the usually lovely “Times Like These.”

But the hits were to be expected – like it or not, this is a singles band. The Foos albums have never been blockbusters, most stalling after a million copies, but many of their singles have already crossed the modern classic line: “Everlong,” “My Hero,” “Monkey Wrench” and “Best of You” are all now iconic modern rock tracks, and they all drew deafening and triumphant roars from the crowd.

That said, the band doesn’t quite have two and a half hours of singles, and so much of the quite-long show fell on back-cataloged gems (the fantastic, solo-filled rager “Stacked Actors,” and the churning, true-to-its-title “Generator”).

Unfortunately for many fans, including the drunken, beer-spilling, air-humping greaser sitting next to me, foraging into album cuts was just confusing. Luckily, though, those fans won’t even remember being there.

Where the band truly succeeded was in taking a huge venue, which is naturally prone to impersonal, over-rehearsed and surprise-less performances, and playing a set that really came alive.

The band’s solos didn’t come right from the album – they were real, raw and interesting. Drummer Taylor Hawkins’ several-minute solo made the crowd’s collective jaw drop; Grohl showed his penchant for heavy metal with finger-bleeding guitar acrobatics throughout.

Grohl’s banter also kept the show fresh, be it a childhood story about his family vacations in Breezewood where his relatives would “eat KFC in our motel room watching the ‘Carol Burnett Show,'” or some crowd commentary (“You guys are ugly up close. I feel like 1,000 people are sitting on my face,” he said with a smirk upon running to the second stage), it was obvious that the man loves his job. In fact, he’d probably be hesitant to even call it work.

And therein lies Dave Grohl’s appeal. He may be the most down-to-earth rock god ever. He’s funny, quirky and real while, at the same time, manages to capture the crowd’s undying devotion with a truly epic performance, full of throat-shredding screams, wild guitar work and more energy than a 6-year-old on Red Bull.

When the man puts his fist in the air, the crowd explodes with cheering and adoration, and when he tells a joke about Joe Walsh (he did), the crowd explodes with laughter.

That’s an interesting duality in alternative rock these days, with the uber-serious (say, Nickelback) usually mutually exclusive from the uber-silly (say, Weezer).

And though the Grohl’s Foo Fighers may never be Cobain’s Nirvana, that just might be the point.