Foo Fighters Anfield Stadium, Liverpool – 27th June 2026

Words: Phil Ingham

Anfield Stadium is used to showcasing legends. Dalglish, Liddell, Barnes, Gerrard, Salah, Heighway, Rush – the list goes on. But on the 25^th and 27^th of June 2026, legends of a different kind played in this historic ground, and the anthems sung from the stands were replaced by anthems played from the stage.

Foo Fighters chose the music-rich city as the venue for their only UK dates on the Take Cover tour and judging by the buzz in and around the stadium, that decision was welcomed completely.

Red smoke, unlikely to be a coincidence given the venue, started to fill the stage and the band arrived and were straight into opener ‘All My Life’. The high-octane screamer was a great choice to launch the set, provoking an immediate response from the eager crowd.

‘The Pretender’ followed the opener and maintained the breakneck pace. The first half of the show followed suit with tracks like ‘Times Like These’, ‘Breakout’ and ‘My Hero’ delighting the fans who had been with the band since the beginning, and newer fans alike.

The opening seven songs drew heavily from classics like ‘The Colour and the Shape’, ‘One by One’and ‘There Is Nothing Left to Lose’. It was such a relentless, hit-filled start that I genuinely wondered what was left for the next two and a half hours.

There are few bands able to dominate a live stadium show like the Foo Fighters. It helps having a back catalogue of sing-along classics, of course, but the crowd engagement from Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel goes a long way to turning the event from a gig to a party. Even in the impressive football stadium, the show feels intimate. Despite the band having toured incessantly since their formation, it never looks like a chore.

There is, of course, a Taylor Hawkins shaped hole in proceedings. From a drumming perspective, Ilan Rubin fills in impressively. But Taylor was so much more to the band than a drummer, and the tributes to him are everywhere in the crowd and likely always will be.

They say you can have too much of a good thing, and this seems to be increasingly a thing with stadium rock bands (Axl, I’m looking at you). For me, Foo Fighters also slipped into the trap, with an overly bloated and indulgent mid-section that took place on a smaller stage set deeper into the crowd. It seems harsh to be saying this when overall the gig was excellent but stripping it down from a three-hour set to a 1 hour 45 minute set would have meant wall to wall bangers with no filler at all.

There seemed to be a lull in the audience for the songs ‘Window’ and ‘Caught in the Echo’, taken from the recent album ‘Your Favorite Toy’. It is perhaps understandable, with the new stuff not yet ingrained into the brains of the fans.

There was still plenty to enjoy during this section, with lots for the old guard to rock to with ‘Generator’, ‘Monkey Wrench’ and ‘Hey, Johnny Park’. The undoubted highlight was a member of crowd, dressed head to toe in a blue Mentos tube, being invited to the stage during Big Me. ‘Mentos Man’ made the most of the opportunity, dancing enthusiastically with the band and even being given the chance to sing the end of the song by Grohl, to the delight of the rest of the stadium.

The Foos also played their own touching tribute to Hawkins, during the beautiful ‘Aurora’, accompanied by a galaxy of ‘stars’ from phone-torches all around the ground.

The session on the mid-stage ended with the anthemic ‘Best of You’, a real crowd pleaser with the obligatory “woooah-oh-ohhhhh” sing-along that is a feature of every Foo Fighters’ show.

As the band moved into the encore, it began with the sprawling ‘The Teacher’ before the last of just three songs from the new record, ‘Unconditional’. Rumours had been circulating all day that Paul McCartney might join the band on stage in his hometown and when the chords to ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ rang around the stadium, there was a palpable sense of anticipation. Alas, we were deprived of the appearance of a Beatle, but there was still an absolute joy hearing this covered in the city famous for the Fab Four. ‘Exhausted’, from the Foo Fighters’ debut album (coincidentally on the 31^st anniversary of its release) followed, before the band closed the show with a stunning version of Everlong. Mid-song, the sky erupted with fireworks (red, naturally) and it really felt like an “I was there” moment.

In a stadium built on unforgettable memories, the Foo Fighters carved a new one into the history books. Not every moment hit the heights, but the peaks were so spectacular the occasional lull was quickly forgotten. In a city that knows a thing or two about musical greatness, the Foo Fighters demonstrated why they remain one of the last true stadium rock bands.

Setlist

1. All My Life
2. The Pretender
3. Times Like These
4. Rope
5. Breakout
6. My Hero
7. Learn to Fly
8. These Days
9. Walk
10. This is a Call
11. No Son of Mine

B-Stage

12. Wheels
13. Marigold
14. Window
15. Big Me
16. Under You
17. La Dee Da
18. Generator
19. Caught in the Echo
20. Invincible / Seven / One Headlight / Manimal / Tap Dancing in a Minefield / Whole Lotta Love
21. Monkey Wrench
22. Hey, Johhny Park!
23. Aurora
24. Best of You

Encore

25. The Teacher
26. Unconditional
27. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
28. Exhausted
29. Everlong

Band Members

Dave Grohl (vocals / guitar)

Chris Shiflett (lead guitar)

Pat Smear (rhythm guitar)

Nate Mendel (bass guitar)

Ilan Rubin (drums)

Rami Jaffee (keyboard)