Foo Fighters, review: 'Who would cave first - band or fans?'

Dave Grohl made a buoyant return to Scotland at the helm of the Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters, Hampden Park, Glasgow ****

The Foo Fighters never can say goodbye. After 30 years as a band, the thought of stopping “would be like your grandparents getting a divorce”, according to frontman Dave Grohl.

They may have been rocked by the premature death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022, but they have powered on with his piledriving proxy, Josh Freese, whose drum roll was the first sound emitted in this bumper set. Who would cave first – band or fans?

Foo Fighters, Hampden, Glasgow PIC: Calum Buchan

The hefty garage chug of All My Life was a bruiser of an opener and the gnarly metal testifying of No Son of Mine was jammed out with Black Sabbath and Metallica references. The Sunset Strip swagger of Rescued featured a sprint to the finish, while they couldn't have wrung more out of the tub-thumping, throat-shredding Walk.

Times Like These, one of their mightiest sing-alongs, opened with just Grohl, an organ drone and 50,000 backing singers. Early gonzo rocker This Is a Call, now with added drum fills, still packed a punch and Learn to Fly was airborne as always.

Playfulness is next to tunefulness for this band, with each member taking a brief solo on a cover version. Nate Mendel teased the opening bassline of The Beastie Boys’ Sabotage while guitarist Pat Smear, punk to his core, riffed on the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop and keyboard player Rami Jaffee offered Flower of Scotland as a space jazz odyssey, toasted by Grohl with a bottle of his favourite vocal medicine Buckfast.

Friends and family were invoked. Grohl’s daughter Violet was right there, ready for her cameo vocal on Show Me How, while the acoustic simplicity of Under You, written after Hawkins’ passing, contrasted with The Teacher, a ten-minute tribute to Grohl’s late mother Virginia on double-necked guitar.

Foo Fighters, Hampden, Glasgow PIC: Calum Buchan

As the show nudged the three-hour mark, big hitters Best of You and Everlong kept the audience as buoyant as the band.

Foo Fighters Hampden Setlist

All My Life

No Son of Mine

Rescued

The Pretender

Walk

Times Like These

White Limo

La Dee Da

This Is a Call

Guitar Solo / Sabotage / Keyboard Solo / Flower of Scotland / Blitzkrieg Bop / Whip It / March of the Pigs

My Hero

The Sky Is a Neighborhood

Learn to Fly

Arlandria

These Days

Skin and Bones

Under You

Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners

Nothing at All

Unconditional

Monkey Wrench

Show Me How

Aurora

Best of You

Encore:

The Teacher

Everlong