Foo Fighters

“Can you hear me?” roars Dave Grohl as the main stage becomes bathed in red light and then continues to yell his way through ‘In your Honor’ and before we have time to draw breath the Foos have kicked into ‘All My Life’ and everyone around me is yelling the lyrics and going crazy, yet Dave’s voice is louder and more forceful than any other. A truly blistering version of ‘Times Like These (One Way Motorway)’ follows and Dave has hardly said a word to us. The stage lights finally come up a bit for ‘My Hero’ and the lasers fire up for ‘Best of You’ by now we’re all totally absorbed in the music and this reviewer is slightly knackered and his throat is sore from screaming along to the songs.

Fortunately Dave to has decided to slow things down. He takes time for a breather telling us this is his favourite festival, “I love Reading so much! I’ve been to Reading so many times, the rest of the festivals suck” The crowd cheer loudly. He’s played Reading seven times now, the first with Nirvana, Dave adds, “Glastonbury is for smelly hippies, V is for clean people for posh people, the f**king yuppies. But Reading is dirty f**king rockers who come out to have a good time. Take it from your Uncle Dave, I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time!” We love that.

Dave grins, pointing down at the mosh pit, he dedicates the next song ‘Up in Arms’ a slow one to all the sweaty boys who like to rub up against each other. Before powering into crowd pleaser ‘Learn To Fly’ where he says they can go back to tearing lumps out of each other. They do and we all scream along to it. ‘The One’ is delivered with such power, I’m amazed his voice is able to hold up with all his yelling/screamed delivery and Taylor Hawkins really shows off his drum skills. All this before his pacey drum solo in ‘Stacked Actors’ and suddenly the Captain Beyond on the drum kit makes sense.

‘Tired’ is highly apt cos none of us are “Getting tired” of the Foos infact the audience is continuing to swell. Presumably the other tents are finishing. Next up a change of pace again as Dave dedicates it to the sweaty loners to chill and, “Take a breath of fresh air.” It takes me a few seconds to realise that it’s ‘Everlong’ but being presented as a slow song. It works fantastically and I wonder if the Foos unplugged isn’t on the cards, particularly with their new slow album.

‘This is a Call’ is crushing and gives the mosh pit a great opportunity to drive themselves senseless. Dave then says he’s going to play a song he first played at Reading in 1995 ‘Breakout’ and that when he writes songs he always considers how they’ll go down at Reading, it finishes with us all bathed in light and what a lot of us there are. The Foos retire for a breather and surely for Dave to have a throat lozenge.

The band come out to an adoring crowd and Dave tells us it’s 13 years since he played drums at Reading, that was with Nirvana. We know something special is coming as he swaps with Taylor to do vocal duties. Taylor says he needs a vocal warm up so we do some Eeey Ooohs which he dedicates to Freddie Mercury before breaking into ‘Cold Day in the Sun’ off the new album (now I knew it wasn’t Dave’s voice on that one) and Mr Grohl can certainly still hit the skins!

They both swap back again, a start falter and a quick guitar change before another new song D.O.A. is presented to us. Then Dave says as they’re here they’ll pay an old song off their very first album and we get treated to ‘For All The Cows’ Still screamin’ out lyrics they follow it with ‘Enough Space’ by the end Dave is grinning from ear to ear. He dedicates it to his family on stage right and introduces them to us, dedicating the song to Russell whose birthday it is tomorrow.

They close with the obvious ‘Monkey Wrench’ and we’re all delirious and delighted to have seen them and I’m still thinking how the hell can he yell through sets like that and not do permanent damage. The Foo Fighters have been shaping rock and roll for years with fantastic lyrics and powerful music, Dave Grohl has a fantastic stage presence and a great band around him. They are at the top of the game and one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen. Superb!

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