For a band that didn’t set out to play arena rock, the Foo Fighters have never
had trouble filling stadiums.

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Foo Fighters Concert Schedule.

“I wouldn’t want things to go huge, crazy out of control,” Dave Grohl, the
band’s versatile front man said in 2000. Since then, with the help of band
members Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, and Chris Shiflett, Grohl’s band has sought
to keep its roots firmly planted in unconventional, anti-studio rock, even while
their popularity has skyrocketed.

In June of 2006, the band played its largest show to date to a crowd of 85,000
in London’s Hyde Park. Their appeal as a live act lies in energetic,
hard-driving melodies, Grohl’s characteristic rocker growl, and a mix of old and
new songs that keep the audience on its feet.

But what exactly is a Foo Fighter? The band took their name from a term used by
US Army Air Force pilots who patrolled German airspace during WWII. The pilots
would encounter maneuverable balls of light thought to be a top-secret aerial
weapon used by the Nazis. Without a technical term for these weapons, the pilots
began referring to them as “Foo Fighters” or “Kraut Balls”.

The driving force behind the Foos, Grohl has the distinction of not only
witnessing, but playing a major role in the early 90’s rock revolution known as
grunge. The Washington D.C. native began playing guitar in his early teens and
by the late 1980’s, he was drumming for the D.C.-based hardcore band, Scream.

The turning point in Grohl’s career came when he joined Nirvana in 1991 at the
age of 22 and played drums on the now-classic album Nevermind. Grohl’s
penchant for hard-hitting backbeats helped the band achieve its often-imitated
sound as Nirvana left a permanent imprint on the face of modern rock. In
Utero followed two years later and Nirvana looked ready to lead a growing
legion of alternative rock acts that now included Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

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Following lead singer Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, and the consequential breakup
of Nirvana, a devastated Grohl nearly gave up the music business for good. A
year later, it was Grohl’s love for making music that pulled him back onto the
scene as he set out to independently record songs he’d written before joining
Nirvana. Grohl played nearly every instrument on what would become the Foo
Fighter’s first, self-titled album. After a bidding war between record companies
anxious to capitalize on Grohl’s connection to Nirvana, Capitol Records signed
the album. The disc’s “This Is a Call” quickly saw heavy radio airplay and by
1996 the album had gone platinum in the U.S.

When Grohl decided to take songs from that album on tour, he assembled a band
with former Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear, Nate Mendel on bass, and William
Goldsmith on drums. Grohl stepped into the role of lead singer with raw,
powerful vocals, and an utterly electric stage presence.

A few years and a few changes in band members later, the Foo Fighters were
scaling the Billboard charts with their 1997 album, The Colour And The Shape.
Hits like “Monkey Wrench”, “Everlong”, and “My Hero” brought the band
enormous commercial success and a respectable place in the late ‘90’s post
grunge fallout. And while MTV was courting highly packaged pop acts, the Foos
remained a bastion of melodic, midtempo, punk-influenced rock.

Upon entering their second decade as the Foo Fighters, the band sought to push
their talents even further with their latest album, Echoes, Silence, Patience
and Grace. Even the Foos themselves describe it as their “most complex and
confident” album yet. The album has a something-for-everyone feel as hook-heavy
anthems like “Long Road to Ruin” are balanced with ballads such as “Statues”
that feature Grohl’s hidden talent on the piano.

With this level of versatility, it’s no surprise the band most recently took
home two Grammy awards for Best Rock Album and Best Hard Rock Performance for
Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace. “This doesn’t get old,” Grohl said as
he accepted the group’s 6th Grammy.

As anyone who’s seen the Foo Fighters live will tell you, seeing them rock out
on stage doesn’t get old either.

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