When rock gods sit down, it’s generally game over. Not Dave Grohl.
“We’re gonna rock a lot for you tonight!” he promises as the “fucking awesome” throne of lights and guitar necks that he’s been playing in on tour since breaking his leg on stage in Sweden motors down the central ramp, while he thrashes as hard as he can through Everlong and Monkey Wrench to make up for cancelling Glastonbury and UK stadium shows in June. Make no mistake, Grohl on a throne rocks as hard as most bands swinging from the lighting rig.
Front-loading the set with hits –* Learn To Fly*, a downbeat Big Me illuminated by an arena of phones, Walk’s ironic howl of ‘learning to walk again!’ – Grohl reserves the second half of the show for special treats. “You’ve heard of a supergroup?” he asks the crowd, introducing first Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and then Queen’s Roger Taylor for a gleeful cover of Under Pressure, “well this is a superdupergroup”, and the night’s surprises don’t end there.
After dispatching *All My Life *and Times Like These with furious aplomb, they start taking requests for DOA from the crowd, dedicate a rare Aurora to Grohl’s favourite front-row regular and throw out Breakout and *This Is A Call *to “the old-school Foo Fighters fans”. And the biggest surprise? At one point, Dave stands up. The throne’s days are clearly numbered.
