Foo Fighters at London Stadium

As Dave Grohl mentions in the set tonight, Foo Fighters are on their 30^th year as a band, and what an incredible 30 years it has been. Their back catalogue is overflowing with household hits, and tonight’s show is the first of two huge London Stadium gigs at a huge 80,000 capacity. That’s pretty big.

One thing to say about arena concerts is they can feel disconnected, and it takes a certain kind of frontman to carry them off. Luckily Dave Grohl is a certain kind of frontman, bursting with energy and charisma – a truly larger-than-life presence on stage, constantly engaging with the crowd.

The band opens the set with 2000s favourite All My Life, bang on time for 7.30pm, and from here we’re in for an unusually long three-hour show. The sun is beaming down on the West Ham Stadium, giving way to the festival spirit, as Grohl rattles through a Black Sabbath and Metallica number over 2021 single No Son of Mine. A strong highlight of the night’s first half is Times Like These, which starts off as a stripped-back version and eventually erupts into all its glory.

After an impressive drum solo from new drummer John Freese, Grohl begins to introduce each member of the band. It becomes rather emotional when he lands on Freese, and as the crowd claps with enthusiasm for the man who replaced Taylor Hawkins, it feels incredibly poignant. The claps are not only to warmly welcome Freese but also to show huge respect for Hawkins.

My Hero, Learn to Fly, Arlandria and These Days are welcome classics, but it feels especially significant when Grohl brings out his daughter Violet to perform their song Show Me How. It’s a different sound from the usual Foo Fighters tracks, with its female vocals and shoegaze elements, but it works really well. 

It seems hard to believe that Hawkins passed away two years ago now, but Grohl does a brilliant job of making sure he’s still a part of the gig. During the encore the band bring out Hawkins’s son, Shane Hawkins, to play the drums on their lively 1995 track I’ll Stick Around, to which he plays with incredible vigour and skill – there is clearly a bright future ahead for him as a musician. Incidentally, the 17-year-old also played in Royal Blood’s Brixton show the previous night.

The band closes the set with the almighty Everlong, and mesmerising fireworks fill the stadium to end what has been a pretty phenomenal show. Arena gigs don’t work in all bands’ favours, but they were made for the Foo Fighters – and the smell of smoky celebration in the air completes the experience rather well.

Hannah Broughton
Photo: Andi K Taylor

For further information and future events visit Foo Fighters’s website here.

Watch the video for the single Everlong here: