Foo Fighters Rock Philly

The Foo Fighters put on the perfect rock show at the Wells Fargo center Thursday night, exceeding fans expectations playing a 3 hour set full of energy.      Dave Grohl, vocals and guitar, announced the Philadelphia crowd to be the largest and most welcoming throughout the entire tour.  The fans made the show worthwhile by singing the songs as loud as Grohl himself and leaving no person in their seat.

“We don’t do one of those little rock shows that last an hour and 45 minutes. We don’t do one of those little rock shows that last 2 hours, not that shit either. Basically, we play until we want to fucking puke,” announced Grohl early on in the show.  This was proved when the Foo Fighters continued to rock the arena until midnight.

The Foo Fighters opened with “Bridge Burning,” the title track off their newest album “Wasting Light.”  They continued to play many more tracks off of their new album, while keeping the older fans’ attention and pleasing the new fans.

The band played the majority of their singles throughout the show, making for many of the crowds favorites.  During “My Hero,” Grohl held the microphone toward the crowd to sing the choruses, given that almost every person in the crowd knew the words.

In the middle of “Monkey Wrench,” before the part where Grohl screams, he incorporated a lengthy blues guitar solo, where the crowd held up their lighters and cell phones anticipating Grohl’s screaming solo. After 16 years of performing vocals for the Foo Fighters, Grohl’s vocals have become anything but weak, wowing the crowd with the range and strain he puts upon them.

While playing the song “Stacked Actors,” Grohl and guitarist Chris Shiflet faced off in a passionate guitar duel, Grohl playing on a risen platform in the back of the arena while Shiflet played on stage.

Toward the end of the Foo Fighters’ first set, they covered Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh?” off of the band’s 1979 album “The Wall.” They closed the first set with the fan favorite “All My Life.”

The encore was a total of 6 songs, playing double the amount a typical rock band would play.

It was begun with Grohl playing a solo acoustic version of “Wheels,” from their “Greatest Hits” album, on the risen platform in the back of the arena.  Grohl continued to play as one man acoustically into “Best of You” and a portion of The Beatles’ “Blackbird.”

“Rule no. 1,” Grohl announced after the first verse of “Blackbird,” “never do a song that’s better than any of your own songs.” The fans were eager to sing along to the well-known Beatles tune.

Grohl continued to play acoustic into the beginning of “Times Like These,” then rejoined the band on stage to finish the song electrically, playing with a great deal of passion and energy.

The band also covered Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Breakdown,” off of their 1976 self-titled album.

They closed the night with “Everlong,” leaving the fans cheering them on well after they left the stage.  Every fan left the show feeling inspired and touch by the band’s performance.

The band members; Grohl (vocals and guitar), Shiflet (guitar), Pat Smear (guitar), Nate Mendel (bass), and Taylor Hawkins (drums), put all of their energy into putting on the best rock concert they possibly could for Philadelphia, making it more than worthwhile for the fans.

“We’ve been practicing 16 fucking years for this show tonight,” Grohl told the crowd during the show.  That is exactly how fans felt after seeing the Foo Fighters’ performance on Thursday night.