One of the few precious rays of sunshine to have emerged in the last few months is Dave Grohl’s series of drum battles with 10-year-old prodigy Nandi Bushell, which have been so purely joyful it would take a special kind of curmudgeon not to crack a smile. Good times are the Foo Fighters’ stock in trade, so of course their lockdown set from LA is exactly the morale boost the doctor ordered.
As they amble on, chewing gum, apparently unaware that they’re already going out live, they launch into a set stuffed with hits (and a couple of new songs) to mark their 25th anniversary as a band – not quite the celebrations they had planned, as Grohl points out wryly, but the next best thing until we can meet again. So while the silences between the songs are awkward – as are the numerous unsubtle shots of branded beer cans to keep the sponsors happy – the everyman energy fizzes from the empty venue as they blast through tight takes on Times Like These, My Hero and Best Of You, Pat Smear bounding around the stage with an infectious grin. “The most important thing right now is to bring joy, happiness,” says Grohl, as he talks from the heart about the power of face-to-face live shows. And as they finish on a magnificent Everlong, still their finest, most loved song, that’s what they’ve achieved.