Foo Fighters – Golden 1 Center, Sacramento (PHOTOS/REVIEW)

By theFIVE10.com on December 3, 2017

Foo Fighters - Golden 1 Center. Sacramento, CA.

Dave Grohl performs with Foo Fighters in Sacramento, CA. Photo by Clay Lancaster.

Foo Fighters continued the North American leg of their 2017 Concrete & Gold tour Saturday night at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento with a sold-out crowd of almost 18,000 people. As Dave Grohl warned ahead of time, it was a long show. Three hours of guitars, drums, screams, jokes, and jams… and it was worth every penny.

The Struts - Golden 1 Center. Sacramento, CA.

The Struts’ Luke Spiller in Sacramento, CA. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Kicking off the evening was the UK rock/glam act The Struts, which certainly lived up to their name with singer Luke Spiller’s method of moving around the stage. The Struts brought high-energy, theatrical rock n’ roll in homage to artists like Freddie Mercury or Bon Scott. Even Foo Fighters’ Grohl praised the band during their own set, calling them the best band they’ve ever had as an opener.

The Foos came out blazing about 8:45pm with “Run”, and continued into a few other big rocker singles (“All My Life, Learn to Fly”) before calming it down a bit with their current single “Sky Is a Neighborhood”.

Dave Grohl performs with Foo Fighters in Sacramento, CA. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Naturally, Foo Fighters performed a good chunk of their newest offering Concrete & Gold to the enthusiastic audience, but still catered to the classic fans (with tracks like “Everlong” and “Times Like These”), and even the hard-core fans of 22 years with a thundering rendition of 1995’s “This is a Call”.

Some pleasant surprises also surfaced in the form of drum solos, cover songs, Taylor Hawkins taking lead vocals a few times, and Dave Grohl sitting in on the drum kit. The band had a lot to offer, a lot to share, and a lot of energy to get off their chests.

As usual, Grohl’s crowd banter was worth the price of admission alone… teasing the audience with quips and semi-promises of song selections and tour schedules.

“How many of you are seeing us for the first time tonight? Really? …in 22 years you couldn’t make it to a show?”

Bassist Nate Mendel celebrated his 48th birthday during the show, which included the band passing around bottles of champagne and staging a giant cardboard cut-out of Mendel’s face in front of the kick drum.

Nate Mendel performs with Foo Fighters in Sacramento, CA. Photo by Clay Lancaster

It’s amazing that after 22 years as a band, Foo Fighters still seem as fresh and wide-eyed as ever. With their displayed level of energy, the lengthy three-hour setlist seemed like it could have gone on for at least four… if not five, and the crowd would have stayed for the entire thing.