Ticket

Grohl turns show into homecoming

CLEVELAND -- The last refrigerator I bought died after a decade.

My grandparents had a refrigerator they probably bought shortly after World War II, and there's a chance it may be in a basement somewhere today still keeping beer incredibly cold.

Dependability is a dying commodity in the modern world, but few things are more dependable than a Foo Fighters' concert.

I've seen the band play for less than 200 people in an empty storefront next to the Record Connection in McKinley Heights in 2015, for about 40,000 people at Huntington Bank Field on Monday and for crowds of varying sizes in between.

Dave Grohl gives everything he has and leaves it all on the stage every single time (if only the folks who normally toil at Huntington Bank Field did the same).

Forget Nigel Tufnel's amplifier from "This Is Spinal Tap." Grohl started at 11, letting out a Richter-registering scream on opening number "All My Life," and turned it up to 100 by the fireworks finale.

And the Warren native credited the band's longevity and its work ethic to his Ohio roots.

His own Buckeye roots aren't particularly deep. He was born here but still in diapers when the family moved to Virginia. But his parents -- James Grohl, who died in 2014, and Virginia Grohl, who died in 2022 -- both grew up in the Mahoning Valley.

Grohl told the crowd before "Best of You" closed the 23-song main set, "One reason we're still a band is because we work like we're from Ohio."

Earlier in the show, Grohl talked about using Sunday's off day to take a trip to Warren and Niles to, among other things, visit his grandparents' graves for the first time in 26 years. He dedicated "When the Wheels Come Down" to his grandparents and all the Grohls still in Ohio.

The show got off to an intense start. One of the perks of being around for 31 years and being as successful as the Foos have been is they have enough hits to pummel the audience with one favorite after another early on instead of saving those gems for the encore.

"The Pretender," "Times Like These," "My Hero," "Learn to Fly," "Walk" and "This Is a Call" all were played in the first hour.

Dependability is a great thing, but one of the elements that comes with that is predictability. The setlist for the tour is pretty static. The 25-song show Monday was identical to the one on Saturday in Detroit minus one encore (I'm sure the Michigan crowd didn't hear as much about Ohio roots and work ethic). The show in Philadelphia tonight likely will be the same.

Grohl's between-song patter will promise a "who-knows-what-might-happen-tonight?" recklessness while following a rigid format, and that patter will be sprinkled with more F-bombs than Samuel L. Jackson in a Quentin Tarantino film.

But the structure itself had some welcome wrinkles, such as the addition of deep cuts like "Stacked Actors" and "Marigold," a song Grohl wrote that Nirvana released as the B-side to the "Heart Shaped Box."

For past tours, the band intros were woven into a medley of classic rock favorites, a bit where late drummer Taylor Hawkins often took over lead vocals and Grohl moved behind the drum kit.

This time the musicians played tracks from their pre-Foo bands as they were introduced -- guitar players Chris Shiflett (No Use for a Name) and Pat Smear (The Germs), bass player Nate Mendel (Sunny Day Real Estate) and organ/keyboard player Rami Jaffe (The Wallflowers). New drummer Ilan Rubin (who could have played a Nine Inch Nails song, since that's the band he was touring with before Foo Fighters hired him) opted to take a guitar solo instead with Grohl behind the kit.

Rubin got several opportunities to show his skills, particularly on "No Son of Mine," but Hawkins' legacy loomed large. Grohl played "Under You," a song written following Hawkins death in 2022, solo on acoustic guitar from a satellite stage at the end of the runway near midfield and also dedicated "Aurora" to him.

Grohl, 57, made a few references to age and the band's long history over the course of the evening. He asked the audience how many were seeing the Foo Fighters for the first time and told the newcomers, if they heard something tonight they didn't know, to ask their fathers, who were once cool.

He also joked about the horrifying experience of flipping on the television Monday during a heavy thunderstorm only to see a tribute band called the Foo Fathers performing on a Cleveland morning show (the lead singer was in the crowd).

He told the newbies, "I'll see you in 20 years when you're here with your kids and I'll be 77 years old."

I have no doubt that's true, and Grohl will give it his all when it does.