Foo Fighters opened their Friday night encore at Citi Field in Queens with the penultimate track from their most recent album, the 10-minute plus “The Teacher.” The song is a bit of an outlier for the group, with frontman Dave Grohl favoring a Gibson double neck for the proggy journey. While the song is dedicated to both his late mother (a teacher) and late former Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins, the title could easily apply to Grohl’s current approach to live shows: A rock ‘n’ roll professor sharing everything he knows about the craft in one blowout three-hour class.
Grohl’s banter between songs illustrated a self-appointed duty to put on a hell of a show, especially in the wake of Wednesday’s Citi Field set getting canceled midway through due to dangerous weather. Legacy and responsibility were large on his mind, as the singer dedicated several moments to the Night One crowd who suffered the shortened set, mentioned several times how committed the band was to rawk, and brought up the Foos’ 30-year legacy. But it makes sense: As bands based around drums and distorted guitar fall more and more out of fashion, it’s comforting to have a ringleader keeping this classic sound alive.
From the jump, Grohl prowled around the stage, more hyena than man, a mane of hair flying all over, a glint in his eyes as he repeatedly dumped water bottles over his head to cool off. While some singers in their fifties might shy away from screaming and let the audience do the work, Grohl pushed harder, superhuman in his ability to rattle his mic on fist-pumpers like “Monkey Wrench” and “Best of You.”
Throughout the night, there were several other nods to classic rock hits, whether it was Grohl incorporating The Beatles’ “Blackbird” into an extended guitar break, band introductions that included snippets of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” and Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop,” and even a jokey rendition of the divisive Led Zeppelin classic “Stairway To Heaven” which was played when a concertgoer needed some help.
And what tribute to rock’s past would be complete without a limbs-flailing drummer in the style of Keith Moon or John Bonham? After Hawkins’ death, the Foos recruited journeyman Josh Freese, session drummer extraordinaire and former member of scores of bands, including Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle, Devo and The Vandals. Freese’s precision and control allow for plenty of thunderous fills, and he could turn on a dime as needed for Grohl’s bandleading, repeating sections to allow for audience singalongs, bringing down the tempo for breakdowns, and riffing to bring new verve to classic tracks. Freese is a technical wonder, and he’s great at keeping the band moving — even when some of the songs might be better served by matching the primal drumbeats of Grohl’s original recordings, like on “My Hero” and “Everlong.”
Grohl, Freese and the rest of the band — guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, guitarist Chris Shiflett and keyboardist Rami Jaffee — played a well-orchestrated setlist filled with the arena-ready hits (“Times Like These,” “Learn to Fly,” “All My Life”) and some deeper cuts for fans (“Arlandria,” “Generator,” first ever single “This Is a Call.”) Smartly, the group limited new material to heavy tracks that allowed the energy to stay elevated — after all, audiences aren’t going to head to the bathroom if Grohl is headbanging and screaming his head off, even if they don’t know the lyrics.
As fireworks went off at the baseball field during the band’s final encore song — a ruckus version of “Everlong” — it became clear that Foo Fighters are just as much of an American institution as baseball itself, carrying the flag of rock ‘n’ roll.
