Review: BottleRock favorite makes triumphant return to festival
A true BottleRock Napa Valley favorite was back in action on Day 2 of the 2026 festival.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s good to be back at the BottleRock,” Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl said as his band took the biggie Prudential Stage for its headlining set on Saturday (May 23). “This is not our first BottleRock. We’ve been here before.”
Indeed, they had - having also headlined the festival in 2017 and 2021. And this time, the Foo Fighters did not break curfew like it did in its BottleRock debut, instead bringing its 2026 set to close a good 15 minutes or so before the 10 p.m. mandatory shutoff. (Grohl is actually repeat curfew offender, having also blown past the 10 p.m. deadline when he sat in during the Guns N’ Roses set in 2021.)
The one thing that has not changed for the Foo Fighters over their years, however, is that they sure still know how to rock the crowd.
These alt-rock champions were definitely on top of their game as they rolled through a 22-song set in almost exactly two hours. As per usual, the Foo Fighters frontloaded the set — a very smart move for getting these festival fans on their side — as they rocked out such favorites as “All My Life,” “Times Like These” and “The Pretender.”
“Alright (expletive), you want to dance?” asked Grohl, as his long black hair waved wildly around his shoulders and face. “Let’s dance!”
The group - which also consists of bassist Nate Mendel, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, keyboardist Rami Jaffee and drummer Ilan Rubin - was locked in for “The Pretender,” to the point where Grohl had to stop playing in order fix the damage he inflicted upon his axe.
“I rocked that one so (expletive) hard I broke the (expletive) strings,” the vocalist-guitarist said with a mix of pride and humor.
Those who came to the show in hopes of hearing a bunch of tracks off the band’s newly released 12th album - which, let’s face it, may have been about a half-dozen people of the 40,000-plus fans in attendance - certainly didn’t get what they were hoping for.
The group played just one new album cut - the title track to “Your Favorite Toy,” which hit stores in April.
Mainly, the Foo Fighters stuck to the hits that drove them right into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility - 2021 - and made Grohl, who was first enshrined as member of Nirvana in 2014, a two-time inductee. I’m talking about such longtime alt-rock radio staples as “These Days,” “Walk,” “My Hero” and “Learn to Fly” - four tunes delivered in powerful, synergetic succession, like a right-left-right-left combo from a heavyweight boxer, in the first half of the set.
Grohl did occasionally go beyond the hits, something that he knew longtime Foo followers would appreciate, treating the crowd to “La Dee Da,” “Hey, Johnny Park!” and “Exhausted,” among others.
The biggest treat in this regard, which anyone other than a massive Foo fan might have overlooked, was “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” - the renamed take on the Vaselines’ “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” that Grohl’s Nirvana made famous on 1994’s “MTV Unplugged in New York.” As far as I can tell, this marked the very first time that Foo Fighters performed the song live.
“We play the deep cuts for the Foo fan,” Grohl remarked.
Grohl was his regular powerhouse on vocals, routinely making one wonder how he manages to not lose his voice from all that screaming, and he combined with Smear and Shiflett for a mighty three-guitar attack.
Yet, Rubin, himself a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee for his former gig with Nine Inch Nails, provided plenty of powerhouse moments as well. He’s a man of true thunder, who used this BottleRock set to further confirm that Grohl definitely made the right call in turning to him to replace former Foo drummer Josh Freese in 2025.
“He’s the Pat Smear of drums,” Grohl said of Rubin.
The group closed up shop in the way that pretty much everybody hoped/expected, bringing Day 2 of the festival to a close with the soaring signature anthem “Everlong,” and leaving the crowd ready to return to see the Backstreet Boys, Sombr, Larkin Poe, Ludacris and others acts take the stage on the third and final day of the 2026 BottleRock Napa Valley on Sunday (May 24).
Foo Fighters setlist, according to our notes and information from setlist.fm:
1) “All My Life”
2) “Times Like These”
3) “Rope”
4) “The Pretender”
5) “La Dee Da”
6) “These Days”
7) “Walk”
8) “My Hero”
9) “Learn to Fly”
10) “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam”
11) “This Is a Call”
12) “Your Favorite Toy”
13) “Nothing at All”
14) “I’ll Stick Around”
15) “Monkey Wrench”
16) Drum Solo
17) “Hey, Johnny Park!”
18) “Aurora”
19) “Big Me”
20) “Best of You”
21) “Exhausted”
22) “Everlong”
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 11:09 AM.