SACRAMENTO, CA | Freshly-minted Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Foo Fighters brought the fire to the Golden 1 Center that had the streets of downtown Sacramento buzzing on a Tuesday night. And why not … with twenty-six years as a band, they were about to show the crowd why they’re one of the greatest bands of this generation. Oh, and if you ever wondered whether there were any perks to being Dave Grohl’s new favorite band, just ask Kills Birds who kicked the night off.
The band took the stage with little fanfare while Grohl, dimly lit by a spot, opened the evening a cappella with “Times Like These” as the crowd sang along. The lights kicked in when the band launched into the chorus, and it was immediately clear that the night’s show was not going to be a mellow affair as Dave dashed from one end of the stage to the other. In fact, the opening salvo of the setlist that went straight into “The Pretender” and “Learn to Fly” set the perfect tone for the evening’s festivities.
The sold out Golden 1 Center was absolutely packed top to bottom and front to back. And as the band settled into their groove, Dave claimed to be genetically programmed to scream for hours and promised to cover all the bases before cracking a joke about the smell of popcorn that permeated the venue. The guy literally doesn’t have an “off button,” injecting humor into even the most basic of moves. Case in point: blending right in with the vintage looking amps was a Marshall mini fridge, easy to dismiss as another piece of gear until Dave nonchalantly opens it to grab a cold one.
Intros of the “overqualified” band members provided them with a chance to show off their chops (Nate Mendel with an Entwistle bass riff and Pat Smear with some Ramones) and briefly Dave with a smoke break. Drummer Taylor Hawkins got a little extra time belting out vocals on Queen’s “Somebody to Love” while Grohl picked things up behind the kit, taking a pull off a mini Jägermeister bottle just before Taylor began demanding “triplets!”
As promised early on, the set covered all the bases including the deep cut “Aurora.” And as the evening wrapped up with “Monkey Wrench” and “Everlong” it sure seemed like the sweat drenched band could have easily kept going. Alas the practicalities of putting on arena-sized rock shows don’t allow that, but hot damn did the Foo Fighters pack an epic show into those two hours.
KILLS BIRDS
Foo Fighters Setlist:
Times Like These
The Pretender
Learn to Fly
No Son of Mine
The Sky Is a Neighborhood
Shame Shame
Breakout
My Hero
These Days
Medicine at Midnight
Breakdown (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)
Walk
Somebody to Love (Queen cover)
All My Life
La Dee Da
This Is a Call
Aurora
Best of You (Extended with long instrumental)
Monkey Wrench
Everlong
