Foo Fighters put on electrifying show in Minneapolis

Foo Fighters performed at Target Field on Sunday, July 28 featuring special guests The Pretenders and L7.Laura Buhman for MPR

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July 29, 2024

It’s entirely possible that Foo Fighters are the last great American rock ‘n’ roll band. At least, it was hard not to see them that way after their Sunday night performance at Target Field. Their energy-packed two-and-a-half-hour set took fans on a journey through their 30-year catalog while offering nods to great bands that came before them.

Sunday’s show was part of the band’s Everything or Nothing at All tour. Despite sweltering temps hovering around 90 degrees and the threat of thunderstorms, nearly 40,000 fans packed into the Twins’ stadium for the first summer concert of the year.

At this point in their career, Foo Fighters can handpick their openers. This leg of the tour features grunge pioneers L7 and the incomparable Pretenders.

L7 started the night strong with an eight-song set. The hot sun was still high at 5 p.m., so the crowd was understandably thin to start. But it didn’t take long for singer/guitarist Donita Sparks’ gritty, volatile vocals to draw people in. L7’s set mostly pulled from their three biggest releases, Bricks Are Heavy, Smell the Magic, and Hungry for Stink, but also included one song from their 2019 reunion album, Scatter the Rats.

Throughout, Sparks, guitarist Suzi Gardner, and bassist Jennifer Finch thrashed around the stage without missing a note. Their nonstop movement on stage made their three-part harmonies all the more impressive. Drummer Demetra “The Goddess of Thunder” Plakas laid down massive-sounding rhythms.

As the sun continued beating down on Target Field, the Pretenders’ set opener, “Let the Sun Come In,” felt all too appropriate. Singer and guitarist Chrissie Hynde graced Minneapolis with her legendary presence along with guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Dave Page, and drummer Kris Sonne back in September for an intimate show at the 7th Street Entry heavy on b-sides and deep cuts. Sunday night, it was back to the chart-toppers that got them where they are today, like “I’ll Stand By You,” “Middle of the Road,” and “Back on the Chain Gang.” Before starting the latter, wearing a Low shirt, Hynde dedicated the song to the late Mimi Parker.

The Pretenders sounded impeccable. Walbourne, in particular, stood out, delivering blistering solos on "My City Was Gone" and "Back on the Chain Gang." Hynde's stage presence was magnetic, even as she braved the heat in thigh-high leather boots over jeans. Her vocal vibrato was as wild and expressive as ever, shining exceptionally bright on an emotional rendition of "I'll Stand By You," which brought the crowd to its feet.

The Pretenders

A cool, refreshing rain shower began just as the Pretenders were wrapping up. The stage crew worked diligently to sweep as much water off the front of the stage as possible, delaying Foo Fighters' set by about 15 minutes. Once the rain let up, the band came out.

From the second Foo Fighters took the stage until the final notes of their encore, they never took their feet off the gas. Frontman Dave Grohl put on a masterclass on how to keep a crowd engaged and wanting more. His banter was loud and vulgar yet funny and endearing. It kept the set moving and the tone stayed lighthearted and fun. Guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel, keyboardist Rami Jaffee, and drummer Josh Freese played flawlessly, and were a spectacle to behold.

“We got a lotta f***in’ songs,” Grohl shouted early on in their set. “And we’re going to play as many from the last 30 years as we can before we have to get the f**k out of here.”

Sunday’s 26-song set was packed with many of their massive radio hits – some in their original form and others reimagined. Early hits like “Learn to Fly,” “Monkey Wrench,” “This is a Call,” “Everlong,” and “My Hero” balanced out the set’s late-career favorites like “Walk,” “The Sky is a Neighborhood,” “Arlamdria,” and “These Days.” Grohl dedicated “My Hero” to his favorite Minnesota band, Hüsker Dü. Sporadic lightning added a little extra drama to an already emotional performance. On But Here We Are’s “Show Me How,” Grohl’s oldest daughter Violet harmonized beautifully with him before soloing on the bridge.

Foo Fighters on stage — Foo Fighters performed at Target Field on Sunday, July 28 featuring special guests The Pretenders and L7.
Laura Buhman for MPR

But it wasn’t just Foo Fighters’ catalog that was on display. Sprinkled throughout the set were snippets of classic rock songs like Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and the Beatles’s “Blackbird.” During Grohl’s band introductions, as each member was announced, the band launched into a song showcasing their talents. For Shiflett, it was a medley of Van Halen’s “Eruption” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” For Mendel, it was the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” Jaffee took a different approach to his intro, playing a trippy Emerson, Lake, and Palmer-esque keyboard solo complete with psychedelic video effects on the stage screens. Smear tore into the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.”

Finally, for the band’s newest member, the band played “March of the Pigs,” a song Freese performed in the mid-aughts when he served as Nine Inch Nails’ touring drummer. Freese is a current and long-term member of the Vandals, Devo, and A Perfect Circle, and has also played with Guns N’ Roses, the Offspring, Weezer, Sublime with Rome, Danny Elfman, hyper-pop duo 100 Gecs, and the reunited Replacements.

Sunday night’s show was the first time the Foo Fighters have played the Twin Cities since drummer Taylor Hawkins tragically passed away in March 2022. Freese is a powerhouse whose more metal- and punk-influenced style gives Foo Fighters’ songs an entirely different feel than Hawkins' more funk- and groove-inspired playing. Freese’s frequent use of double bass and blistering drum fills made the entire set feel much heavier. At several points, he and Grohl were going wild, riffing and soloing off of one another.

“We like to play this song every night because it was Taylor Hawkins’ favorite Foo Fighters song,” Grohl reflected during “Aurora” as a gentle rain started falling. As the song progressed, an outline of a hawk with its wings spread – one Hawkins had tattooed on his arm – appeared on the stage screen.

“Aurora” wasn’t the only time Grohl allowed himself time to grieve onstage. During a stripped-down acoustic rendition of “Under You,” he unleashed a wall of emotion on the crowd. Foo Fighters recorded the song in the wake of Hawkins’ death, and it is a lyrical response to how the band felt without their friend and bandmate by their side. With only his voice and an acoustic guitar, Grohl grieved alongside 40,000 fans. At times during the song, his voice hauntingly resembled that of Grohl’s other departed bandmate, Kurt Cobain.

These moments of quiet, beauty, and grief in the middle of a loud and aggressive rock show more than earn the Foo Fighters the status of the last great American rock band. In their 30-year span, they’ve mastered a formula to give fans the best experience possible. The quiet makes the loud feel more grandiose, and the loud makes the quiet more impactful and meaningful.

Foo Fighters