It had been nearly a decade since I’d last seen Dave Grohl and Co. Since then we’ve had three albums (four if you count the Dream Widow one), a Bee Gees covers EP, another couple of EPs, a movie, and various other accolades. They also suffered the heartbreaking loss of long-time drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022. Heck, last time I saw them, Dave himself was suffering from a broken ankle, playing the entire set from the comfort of a custom, movable throne. So, to say this is a very different band to the last time I saw them is an understatement. However, they are just as fantastic as ever. They rolled into Old Trafford Cricket Ground with something to prove, and they did just that.

I just want to say briefly that the support bands, Chroma and Courtney Barnett, weren’t my sort of thing. I’m not one to be slagging off musicians as I know how insane a job it is, especially at this level, but damn, I didn’t like either of them. I’m sure plenty in the crowd did, as it was still packed in the arena for both bands. That’s especially good given how early the two acts were on.

Now, onto more positive things…

Strolling out proudly before opening on forever-awesome starter ‘All My Life’, the band showed off just how tight they are live from the get go, as well as immediately getting the crowd participation and showmanship going. Our lord and saviour Dave Grohl continued to have the crowd in the palm of his hand through modern album hits ‘No Son of Mine’ (surprisingly heavy live) and ‘Rescued’. Then, we got a surprisingly early crowd favourite and mega-hit ‘The Pretender, played to perfection.

Only four songs into their incredible three hour, 26-track setlist, and it’s already a show for the ages. The crowd hang on every single word or note from the band, and the band give everything they have back to them. And, most importantly, decades into their career together and they are still having fun, which helps the show even more. And, while we surprisingly got no pyro, a growing trend among the big bands these days seemingly, the video background was INSANE. Some of the graphics on it had like, AAA games level of lighting on them, making them look 3d even halfway across the stadium. It’s something I’ve never seen done so well. The show was something else!

As for the rest of the setlist; it was chocked full of both crowd favourites and hidden Foos gems. From the likes of ‘Learn to Fly’, ‘These Days’ and ‘Best of You’ to gems like ‘This is a Call’ and a fantastic acoustic duet of ‘Statues’ (a criminally underrated song), it was awesome! We even got a couple of fitting tributes to Taylor, one being his favourite FF song ‘Aurora’, one being Dave’s solo acoustic rendition of ‘Under You’, which he got pretty choked up through. Both were handled beautifully and were packed full of emotion. We even got the 2nd time a brand new, unrecorded song, ‘Unconditional’, which was amazing. And of course, it ended it truly epic fashion with crowd favourite ‘Everlong’.

So yeah, to say it was a good evening would be an understatement. I’ve been a fan of the band all my life, and to see them still this good three decades later is amazing. They are one of the best live bands around and proved it in spades in Manchester. Whenever they next tour, anyone reading this HAS to see them, they are more than worth it!