It was hard to love the Foo Fighters during their BottleRock set

Dave Grohl sprinted onto the main stage, flanked by the other members of the Foo Fighters, strumming his guitar. After reaching the microphone, the frenetic frontman addressed just one of the stalking elephants in the room. “It’s not our first BottleRock,” he said. “We’re going to squeeze as much as we can before they cut us off.”

The rock industry darling wasn’t coy about the Foo’s infamous appearance at the Napa festival nine years ago. BottleRock pulled the plug during their 2017 finale of “Everlong” due to a noise curfew. The silence prompted the audience to sing along to the immortal ballad — which even Bob Dylan has praised — and the moment was cemented in festival lore.

Clearly, there were no hard feelings since the band returned in 2021 and again on Saturday night to close out the second day of the fest. But this performance was different from the rest. Beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins died in 2022, replaced by former Nine Inch Nails percussionist Ilan Rubin. Rubin clashed the cymbals with a precise fury. Shoeless, in a pair of Calvin Klein socks, he was the second hardest-working man on stage behind Grohl, but his presence felt overshadowed by Hawkins’ premature passing. 

Meanwhile, it’s hard for a longtime fan like me to view Grohl in the same light as I did five years ago, as they last blasted through their 31-year catalog of prestige, radio-friendly rock. I’m still rattled by the aftershocks from his stunning confession in 2024 that he had fathered a child outside of his marriage. His betrayal subjected Jordyn Blum, a director and his wife for decades, to public ridicule. Not to mention their children. 

His off-stage behavior impacted how I listen to the music, but I went into the show with open ears ready to hear how Grohl has evolved and matured. Instead, he belittled Blum with a weird comment about her drinking during a moment that was intended to honor her 50th birthday. And then he butchered “Big Me,” one of my favorite songs, tainting it forever like a blotted Merlot stain. 

To begin, as is the custom, the Foo Fighters opened with “All My Life.” The chugging, palm-muted riff kick-starts most shows, and while it sizzles like a burning fuse approaching a powder keg, I found myself absorbed by the lyrics. “Done, done, and I’m on to the next one,” Grohl screams during the refrain. 

I started considering how Grohl was never shy about detailing his demons through song, and throughout the night, choruses I’ve heard countless times started to sound new with context. I think Grohl uses the stage like a therapy couch. The audience is his shrink, or sounding board. 

The frontman’s music is deeply confessional. After all, one of the best songs from the aughts era begins with, “I’ve got another confession to make.” Maybe the calamity from a crowd helps to calm his overeagerness. Regardless, the relationship feels cathartic for both sides, as I saw dozens of people profess their passion to every power chord.

As a main stage rock band, the Foo Fighters are seasoned and quick on the pick to keep the music going. During “The Pretender,” Grohl broke a string on his guitar and seamlessly used the song’s bridge to ask lead guitarist Chris Shiflett to take over while a stagehand named Scottie grabbed a new Gibson. Reloaded, Grohl proceeded to work a cover of “Do It” by the Pink Fairies into the arena anthem. It was the first of several rock and roll references peppering the setlist.

During “No Son of Mine,” the band paid tribute to Motorhead with an “Ace of Spades” interlude, but the best surprise was a cover of a cover. 

Nirvana, that other band Grohl was in, famously reworked “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” by the Vaselines during their “MTV Unplugged” performance. The song made an appearance as part of a medley with “Learning to Fly,” just as the sun set, sending beams of marmalade into the sky behind the crowd. Grohl treated BottleRock to a novel callback — according to setlist.com, this is the only time the Foo Fighters have performed the song — but it sounded uninspired. Even with pianist Rami Jaffee on accordion, “Sunbeam” was reduced to a novelty. 

Throughout the night, Grohl dedicated four songs to four different people, alive and deceased. “These Days” was for Jose Andres, the famed chef prepared gazpacho with Grohl at the culinary stage earlier in the day, and he toasted to fellow main stage performers LCD Soundsystem with “Monkey Wrench.” “This is our version of a dance song,” Grohl said.

In honor of Hawkins, the band performed “Aurora.” It was a tender moment, as the song takes on a new shape and color for venerating the lost percussionist. 

However, the most awkward dedication of the night was for Blum. It could have been a slam-dunk moment for just about any other husband in the audience, but Grohl bumbled it. He informed the crowd how it was his wife’s 50th birthday and that they decided to celebrate with a Foo Fighters concert in Napa. Grohl said the weekend was about “drinking from noon to midnight.” 

Before playing the next song, Grohl suggested bringing Blum on stage to celebrate her, but when she wasn’t in the wings, he scrambled. “She’s probably drinking wine in the back,” he told the tens of thousands of people about his wife on her golden jubilee. “It doesn’t matter.”

Alone with the guitar, Grohl started strumming “Big Me.” It was saccharine. It lacked the conviction of the recording and felt performative. Grohl ended by saying, “That’s my version of a happy birthday song,” and I could have sworn I saw his ego erupt in a blaze of self-glory — surprising, since he looked so tiny on stage from the crowd. 

Although their first two CDs were on repeat throughout my childhood thanks to older siblings, BottleRock was my first time attending a Foo Fighters concert. It was abundantly clear that Grohl is a rapid pacemaker. He told the crowd how he likes to play song after song after song, and before ending the night, Grohl predicted his future. “I’ll be 87 f—king years old and still up here screaming,” he said. 

Numerous times, a song featured a false ending, giving him a chance to belt the hook yet again. It was as if Grohl couldn’t let the moment end, perhaps afraid to face the back of the stage and the rest of the world waiting for him when the final note played out.