Foo Fighters were awesome, but not that awesome

The epic 150 minute concert at NOS Alive that everybody is talking about, seen from a not so overwhelmed portuguese fan

They say anticipation is half the fun, but Portugal waited for 6 long years for the return of the Foo Fighters. No fun in that. Since their last concert in 2011, the Foos visited Europe 3 times during their Sonic Highways World Tour (including that infamous broken-leg Leg of the tour) and not once travelled south to play for their ever growing portuguese fan base. Last Friday, the Foos finally arrived in Lisbon after beating a storm that held them in Madrid for hours, threatening to cancel the show and yet again delay their return to Portugal. Not this time.

After waiting for so long, it was no surprise that the level of excitement prior to the show was particularly intense. Even the opening band The Cult complained that the audience was too static — "are you guys on drugs?" asked Ian Astbury, before telling everybody to "fuck off!" —, falling to frustration as people seemed to be there only for the Foos.

Foo Fighters came and delivered a 150 minute epic concert, showing why they are very probably the biggest rock band in the world at the moment. So let's clear the air right away and say that the Foos were awesome. However, like with every other super hero, with great power comes great responsibility to the boys. And great scrutiny. At this point, it's not enough to be awesome and they know that.

The 'biggest rock band in the world', now that sure is a risky title, right? It was hard-earned. Nowadays, the Foo Fighters are one of the very rare rock 'n' roll bands who are able to produce what I like to call 'The Bruce Springsteen Effect'. For those unaware of 'The Bruce Springsteen Effect', it consists on a rapidly contagious virus which spreads across the audience and leaves everybody with a big grin on their faces after the first half-dozen songs.

It didn't take that long. The audience was immediately set on fire within the gigantic 5 track opening set — “All My Life”, “Times Like These”, “Learn to Fly”, “Something From Nothing” and “The Pretender” —, a non-stop freight train recalling the old raging Foo Fighters from 10-15 years ago. It looked like the night was going to be like Barney's 'Get Psyched' mixtape — always on top — but Dave Grohl soon revealed different plans for us: "Sometimes I have to take you down". And that's exactly what he did.

Part of the audience might have felt the need for a little rest (the band certainly appreciated it) and Dave took the time to introduce the members of the band, who offered the audience a series of little gems of improvisation, such as "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Blitzkrieg Bop". Great stuff, but I was ready to get back on the freight train. What ensued though was a series of deep cuts mostly from the 2011 album "Wasting Light", which I'd be ok with (it's the last great FF album) if they weren't injected with long and pointless extended jams. These dragged the songs for far too long and lowered the temperature of the concert to the point of yawning.

It takes guts to transform a stage in front of 65 thousand people into your own living room, I give them that. It's a sign of confidence that shows the Foo Fighters from 2017 are very different from the band from 10 years ago. They are now sitting at the top of the rock n' roll hierarchy and don't feel the need to prove a thing to anyone. That's great and all, but a little grounding won't hurt. Not everybody got out of the NOS Alive festival feeling it was the best concert ever.

Although I do understand the temptation for this sort of superlatives (I overuse them myself), let's all agree that the Foo Fighters were not that awesome, or at least that they could have been so much better. The band played for 2 hours and 30 minutes and within such a lengthy set, it's a real shame they didn't find the time to play hits like "Breakout", "DOA", "Long Road To Ruin", or even the oldies "Big Me" and "I’ll Stick Around". They all could have easily fitted the set, if the long noodlings were cut. Sadly, the grungey debut album only made an appearance towards the end of the set, igniting the audience with the explosive "This Is A Call". This is where the band shows its mojo, playing these loud raging rock n roll tunes that immediately eject everybody from the ground. They should do more of that.

Afterwards, it was Dave's turn to jump, following the orders from a spontaneous chant from the audience, which eventually lead into an interaction that lasted for more than 10 minutes. The communication between the band and the audience was superb, some of the best I've ever witnessed in my whole life. Easily one of the highlights of night. Foo Fighters are self-confessed Queen fans and they play by the Freddie Mercury book, having in mind how important it is that the audience feels they're part of the show. Taylor Hawkins even emulated Freddie vocal improvisation at Wembley Stadium in 1986.

Overall it was a night of ups and downs that could have (and should have) been more on the upper side. With such a long stage time, the Foo Fighters could have played 5 more songs and done a more compelling show. Obviously, at the end of the day, as the biggest rock 'n' roll band in the world right now, they can do whatever the fuck they want. At least as long as they keep selling the tickets.