Foo Fighters gave BottleRock a gloriously unhinged rock show
Closing the second night of the sold-out festival Saturday, May 23, on the Prudential Stage, Dave Grohl and company delivered exactly the kind of set that has kept them in the top tier of American rock bands for three decades: loud, loose, funny, sentimental, profane and just messy enough to feel alive.
"We've been a band for 30 years," Grohl told the crowd. "We've got a lot of songs."
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He was not exaggerating. Over roughly 90 minutes, Foo Fighters tore through a career-spanning set that moved from festival-sized anthems to early catalog deep cuts, with detours for Motörhead, a birthday dedication, a drum solo and at least one moment involving gum, hair and a level of rock-star commitment better left unexplained.
The band opened with "All My Life," immediately setting the tone for a night that favored volume over finesse. "Times Like These," "These Days" and "Walk" followed, giving the crowd a run of songs built for a mild Napa night and a frontman who still performs with his entire being.
By the time the band reached "My Hero," the show had settled into its rhythm - Grohl leading from the front, grinning through the chaos, while the rest of the band turned the stage into a wall of guitars and drums.
"This is for the old-school fans," Grohl said before "This Is a Call," the first single from Foo Fighters' 1995 debut album.
At a festival where many people were likely seeing the band for the first time, the song served as a reminder that Foo Fighters began not as an arena institution, but as a scrappy project built from grief, noise and instinct.
That early spirit kept resurfacing throughout the set. Foo Fighters are now one of rock's most reliable big-field bands, but Saturday's performance was strongest when it let the seams show. Grohl was drenched in sweat, dumped a cup of water over his head and at one point got his hair stuck in gum before putting it back in his mouth.
"Welcome to my world, motherf-s," he cracked.
It was gross. It was ridiculous. It was also very much the point.
Foo Fighters are polished enough to headline anywhere, but their best shows still run on the illusion that the whole thing could fly off the rails. BottleRock got that version of the band - part stadium-rock machine, part garage-band dare, part hair-metal fever dream.
Grohl leaned into the excess, pushing the crowd during "Monkey Wrench" with the air of a coach trying to wring one more scream out of a team that had already been standing in the sun all day.
"You've been here all day, can you still scream? I'm going to test you. I'll give you a screaming lesson," he said, before leading the crowd into one of the night's loudest shout-alongs.
The band also nodded to its heavier influences, ripping through a blast of Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" during the set. It was less a full detour than a reminder of the engine under many Foo Fighters songs: speed, distortion, sweat and a refusal to overthink the obvious pleasure of being loud.
Still, the night was not all volume.
Grohl slowed the set for "Big Me," dedicating the song to his wife, Jordyn Blum, for her 50th birthday. After a night full of screaming, riffing and comic chaos, the moment came off sweetly unvarnished.
"That's my version of a happy birthday song," he said.
The emotional center of the set arrived later, when Grohl thanked the fans who had stuck with Foo Fighters across 30 years, as well as the people seeing them for the first time.
He seemed aware of the strange generational spread in front of him that ranged from longtime devotees who grew up with the band to casual festivalgoers waiting for the hits and younger fans discovering the catalog through parents, playlists or sheer rock-radio osmosis.
Foo Fighters have history at BottleRock. The band headlined in 2021 and previously in 2017, when its set ran past Napa's 10 p.m. curfew and the sound was cut during "Everlong." On Saturday, Grohl and company stayed on schedule, but not exactly on their best behavior.
"We've got another 30 years left," he said. "I'll be 87 years old screaming this song."
The late stretch of the set underlined that point. "Best of You" became the expected mass catharsis, with the crowd throwing the chorus back at the band.
But rather than close with only the most obvious moves, Foo Fighters reached all the way back to "Exhausted," the final track from their debut album.
The choice gave the end of the set a strange, welcome darkness. "Exhausted" is not one of the band's tidy festival anthems. It is sludgier, heavier, more frayed - a loud, twisted-metal reminder of where the whole thing started.
Then, of course, came "Everlong."
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Foo Fighters may have spent the night acting like a band happily making a mess, but the closing song reminded everyone how precise their emotional aim can be.
Saturday's set was not elegant. It was not subtle. But it was not trying to be.
It was Foo Fighters at their loudest and most gloriously unvarnished.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 10:51 AM.