Dave Grohl had a solution in mind for anyone who didn\u2019t know the words to the song he and the other Foo Fighters were about to play Wednesday night at Inglewood\u2019s Kia Forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the old guy next to you and just f\u2014ing sing that,\u201d he told the crowd, stringy black hair matted to his sweaty, reddened forehead. \u201cOdds are he\u2019s been listening to KROQ since the f\u2014ing early \u201980s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s show was billed as both a celebration of Grohl\u2019s 57th birthday \u2014 at one point two stagehands wheeled out an enormous cake \u2014 and a fundraiser for a couple of organizations fighting homelessness in the band\u2019s hometown of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
But nearly four years after the shocking death of drummer Taylor Hawkins<\/a>, the concert was also a showcase of Foo Fighters\u2019 essential durability: the group\u2019s dogged yet cheerful determination to keep going no matter what.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s show was a fundraiser for two organizations fighting homelessness in L.A.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Last year, the band fired Hawkins\u2019 replacement, Josh Freese, without much explanation, then replaced him<\/i> with Ilan Rubin of Nine Inch Nails. (In a very KROQ twist, Freese went on to take Rubin\u2019s spot in Nine Inch Nails.)<\/p>\n The drama with the drummers followed Grohl\u2019s revelation in late 2024 that he\u2019d fathered a child outside his marriage \u2014 a threatening reputational blow to a guy long regarded as a kind of benevolent rock \u2019n\u2019 roll uncle.<\/p>\n And just last week, the Foos announced that guitarist Pat Smear would miss the band\u2019s upcoming gigs after accidentally \u201csmashing the s\u2014 out of his left foot.\u201d Jason Falkner, a former member of the great \u201990s psych-pop band Jellyfish who\u2019s played for years with Beck<\/a>, filled in for Smear at the Forum, where Rubin\u2019s kick drum bore a picture of Smear\u2019s face.<\/p>\n Despite all that, Foo Fighters came on like they always have: heavy, crunching, speedy, tuneful.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I haven\u2019t gone to the bathroom once this whole show,\u201d Grohl said as he approached the two-hour mark.<\/p>\n After coming up through the punk scene in Washington, D.C., Grohl became a star as the drummer of Nirvana<\/a>; he started Foo Fighters in 1994 as a way of grappling with the death that year of Nirvana\u2019s Kurt Cobain. Over the decades the band\u2019s music has moved steadily toward the kind of classic rock that punks once professed to hate \u2014 think of Led Zeppelin, think of Aerosmith, go ahead and think of Boston \u2014 while Grohl has taken up the role of jocular frontman with a gusto approaching that of David Lee Roth.<\/p>\n Here the Foos performed on a rotating stage that the singer happily said made him feel like \u201cI\u2019m in the showroom at the Mercedes dealership in Van Nuys.\u201d (He also pointed out that the setup ensured that everyone would eventually \u201cget a nice look at my ass.\u201d)<\/p>\n Key to the band\u2019s longevity, of course, is a deep store of hits that now themselves count as staples of any classic rock playlist. \u201cLearn to Fly\u201d and \u201cTimes Like These\u201d were crisply melodic; \u201cMy Hero,\u201d which Grohl dedicated to Smear and his broken foot, was somehow bludgeoning and<\/i> propulsive. \u201cMonkey Wrench\u201d sounded like an atomic-powered version of \u201cJohnny B. Goode.\u201d And \u201cBest of You\u201d had a soulful tug that reminded you that Prince<\/a> famously covered the song in the rain at the Super Bowl in 2007.<\/p>\n The Wednesday show also celebrated Dave Grohl\u2019s 57th birthday.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Around the halfway mark, Grohl threw a bit of Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s \u201cAce of Spades\u201d into the Foos\u2019 \u201cNo Son of Mine\u201d \u2014 \u201cThat was for Lemmy<\/a>,\u201d he said of the late Mot\u00f6rhead frontman \u2014 then had his bandmates take a break as he sang a solo rendition of \u201cUnder You,\u201d about his struggle to accept Hawkins\u2019 passing.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/546a755\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3349x5024+0+0\/resize\/320x480!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9a%2F4e%2F2aebc6d84644beb61c4d3ebe3d3b%2F1537849-et-foo-fighters-004-rb.jpg)
<\/picture>\n