From the very day Dave Grohl’s Late cassette spread like wildfire in the pre-broadband early ‘90s and morphed into 1995’s Foo Fighters (on which Grohl sang and played every note save for one guitar track), Foo Fighters
have been working too hard, too long toward this moment to have it wasted on non-believers. The trials and tribulations made along the way—drummer William Goldsmith leaving after laying down a scant few tracks for 1997’s masterful The Colour & The Shape, guitarist Pat Smear exiting during the tour supporting that same record; the defection from Capitol to RCA for 1999’s There Is Nothing Left To Lose (which rightfully boxed Bon Jovi and Creed out of the Rock Album Grammy in 2000); the recovery from Taylor Hawkins’ near miss of summer 2001—have all made this band stronger, leaner, meaner. It bears repeating: This is the new-model-last-men-standing best rock band there is.