Review: Foo Fighters and Pretenders knock it out of the ballpark

In a summer concert season packed with Gen-X nostalgia shows in the Twin Cities, the Foo Fighters’ thrilling and exhaustive performance Sunday night at Target Field was probably the one where fans felt the youngest again and the headliners seemed the least like an oldies act.

Rebounding from tragedy that derailed their tour two years ago, Dave Grohl and his resilient band played for nearly three hours on a sweltering-turned-lightly-rainy night at the Twins ballpark, which will also welcome a Green Day/Smashing Pumpkins doubleheader on Aug. 17.

These big ballpark gigs also come amid other ‘90s-heavy lineups at last weekend’s Minnesota Yacht Club festival and next weekend’s Basilica Block Party. We’re getting to the point where Gen-Xers are overtaking boomers as the concert industry’s most profitable and reliable demographic. Big congrats to the new old farts!

Lots of Yacht Club T-shirts could be seen among the more than 40,000 fans who bought up most of the Target Field tickets as fast as you can name Grohl’s band before the Foo Fighters.

The sprawling and smiley crowd withstood the heat and then the endurance test of a 5½-hour rock show with discernible glee. That included a rave response to the hourlong opening set by the Foos’ fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famers the Pretenders, whose bandleader Chrissie Hynde added to the event’s ageless vibe.

The night kicked off in a loud and meaningful way with one of the grunge era’s most definitive bands, L7.

“Thanks for turning out early for the ladies,” singer/guitarist Donita Sparks said as her quartet vented against sexist politics and general boneheadedness in still-timely classics like “Pretend We’re Dead” and “Shove.”

Hynde, 72, strutted out with the sun still beaming onto the stage but didn’t flinch, delivering a blazing set to match.

“Oh, we love this town,” she said before her band launched into “Let the Sun Come In” and “Turf Accountant Daddy,” a couple of the bitingly topical recent tunes they also showcased last summer in Hynde’s special birthday date at the tiny 7th St. Entry club a couple of blocks away.

Sunday’s ballpark set leaned more heavily on the Pretenders’ arguably underrated trove of All-American classics — so many hits, Hynde was forgiven for cutting short their renowned cover of the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing” after just one mellow verse.

“We’re running out of time, and I can tell this is more a rock ‘n’ roll crowd,” she said, leaving room for a full-throttle “Middle of the Road.” Two other rocked-up highlights earlier in the set were “Back on the Chain Gang” and “Kid.” Hynde dedicated the former to Mimi Parker of the Duluth band Low and the latter to late Pretenders co-founders James Honeyman-Scott and Peter Farndon.

“And we’ll send it out to Taylor, too,” she added, the night’s first reference to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Hawkins’ sudden death in 2022 forced the cancellation of the Foos’ U.S. Bank Stadium gig and other shows that year, leading to an uncharacteristic five-year lull between the hard-touring band’s Minnesota stops. His memory permeated Sunday’s show in a celebratory, not somber, way.

After a well-timed spat of rain between bands delayed the Foos’ entry by 15 minutes, Grohl and Co. lit up the stage with “All My Life,” causing a rippling vibration through the stands from jumping fans that rivaled the thrill of a walk-off home run.

As gregarious and rowdy as ever at 55, Grohl asked how many fans saw them 30 years ago at First Avenue; about 13,500 more fans cheered back than the 1,500 that were actually there. He also paid homage to local rock lore by dedicating “My Hero” to Hüsker Dü (“a band that changed my life”), and by mentioning that new Foo drummer Josh Freese had played with Paul Westerberg and the 2010s-era Replacements, among numerous other acts (including Nine Inch Nails, whose “March of the Pigs” they briefly lit into).

“He made it possible for us to come out and play for you more,” Grohl said of Freese.

By show’s end that seemed 100% accurate. The punk-weaned drummer helped turn “Monkey Wrench” and more recent standouts “The Pretender” and “No Son of Mine” into thrilling thrash fests. He also kept the band steadily on track as Grohl and guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear messed around and jammed through a few of the songs (arguably too many).

Freese already seems to be part of the Foo family, and the night’s surprise guest literally was family: Grohl’s daughter Violet, 18, came out late in the set to duet with him on the Cure-flavored “Show Me How,” written about Dave’s late mom. That gave way to another bittersweet moment as Grohl asked the crowd to cheer for Hawkins before “Aurora,” saying it was the late drummer’s favorite tune.

It was hard to miss Hawkins’ presence early in the show during “Rescued” (“I’m just waiting to be rescued / Bring me back to life”). His joyous pounding could also be felt reverberating in the night’s oldest tunes, too, including “Breakout,” “This Is a Call” and the encore finale “Everlong.”

One of those songs, like “Born to Run” or “Purple Rain,” “Everlong” simply never fails to ignite goose bumps and spike adrenaline into the crowd no matter how many times fans have heard it played live. There’s nothing nostalgic about a never-ending thrill like that.