Dave Grohl warned us upfront about what was in store on Tuesday night.
“Are u ready?” the Foo Fighters front man said not long after taking the stage at the Toyota Pavilion in Concord around 8:20 p.m. “We are going to kick your (expletive) asses for the next three hours.”
And then he just kept right on warning us.
“It’s going to be a long night for you (expletives),” the 55-year-old Ohio native stated a more songs into the set. “I hope you all wore comfortable shoes.”
Followed by:
“Let me explain how this is going to go — we are going to play as many songs as we can until they kick us off stage,” the singer-guitarist said in what felt like a dozen such proclamations on the night.
Yet, he didn’t just talk the talk — he then went about backing up his multiple boasts by indeed rocking fans for the next 2 1/2-hours-plus.
Expletives not included.
Foo Fighters perform in a soldout concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
It was a fitting performance for what was surely the biggest concert to hit Toyota Pavilion in years. After all, the Foo Fighters are a stadium-sized headliner — which just performed two big shows at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles over the weekend — and they were playing a sold-out show at the 12,500 Pavilion.
So, yeah, I’d say that’s an underplay. And pretty much every single fan in the house acted like they felt fortunate to be there to witness the event.
Grohl and company — guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear (guitars), bassist Nate Mendel, keyboardist Rami Jaffee and new drummer Josh Freese — raced right out of the gate with a powerful version of “All My Life” that had everybody out of their seats and chanting along with the lyrics.
They’d follow up with an extended take on “No Son of Mine” that included snippets of three of the best hard rockers of all time — AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” (Given that this is the Bay Area, it wasn’t surprising to hear the Metallica tune get the loudest response from fans.)
Foo Fighters perform in a sold-out concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The group played three songs off its latest album — last year’s “But Here We Are” — but mainly stuck to the vintage stuff for the “old-school fans,” who Grohl said he deeply identifies with.
“I’ve got a minivan, too,” the front man reasoned.
(Grohl would later use the term “okey dokey artichokey” to further underscore that he’s now in his mid-50s.)
The vocalist -guitarist as his usual manic, energetic self, screaming his way through numbers and doing his best to pump up the crowd. The rest of the group was also sensational — including Shiflet, who especially showcased his nimble fret work through a passage that quoted from acclaimed axemen Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train”), Eddie Van Halen (“Eruption”) and Angus Young (AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”).
“Believe me nobody else in the band can do that (expletive),” Grohl commented after the Shiflet showcase. “He’s our Swiss Army knife.”
Also, Freese — who joined the band in 2023 after drummer Taylor Hawkins died the year prior — was an absolute force throughout the show, delivering head-turning run after head-turning run. Grohl — who, of course, came to fame by setting the beat for Nirvana — sure can pick ’em when it comes to great drummers.
The bandleader did take the time to talk about the man who sat on the kit prior to Freese and dedicated the song “Aurora” to him late in the set.
“We like to do this one every night because it was Taylor Hawkins’ favorite song,” Grohl explained.
The group closed up their 2-hour-and-15-minute main set with the always fulfilling “Best of You,” before returning to give the fans even more with a two-song encore that brought yet another enjoyable Foo Fighters gig to an end.
Foo Fighters perform in a soldout concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
These headliners were not, however, the hardest rocking band to hit the Pavilion stage on Tuesday night. That title would definitely go to L7, the Los Angeles-based punk-metal act that achieved some degree of commercial success in the ’90s with “Bricks Are Heavy” and other albums.
The group — featuring vocalist-guitarists Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner, vocalist-bassist Jennifer Finch and vocalist-drummer Dee Plakas — absolutely thundered through its opening set, delivering punishing versions of “Fuel My Fire,” “Pretend We’re Dead” “Fast and Frightening” and other winners.
It was a 30-minute set, which I wish had lasted twice that long. (Yes, even if it meant getting less Foos.) Make sure to catch L7 in concert if you have a chance.
L7 band members open the show before Foo Fighters perform in a sold-out concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Foo Fighters setlist:
1. “All My Life”
2. “No Son of Mine”
3. “The Pretender”
4. “Walk”
5. “Times Like These”
6. “White Limo”
7. “Stacked Actors”
8. “Breakout”
9. “My Hero”
10. “The Sky Is a Neighborhood”
11. “Learn to Fly”
12. “Arlandria”
13. “These Days”
14. “Statues”
15. “Under You”
16. “Nothing at All”
17. “This Is a Call”
18. “Shame Shame”
19. “Monkey Wrench”
20. “Aurora”
21. “Best of You”
Encore:
22. “The Teacher”
23. “Everlong”
Foo Fighters perform in a soldout concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Foo Fighters perform in a soldout concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Foo Fighters perform in a soldout concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Foo Fighters perform in a soldout concert at Toyota Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
