Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters have been many things to many people over their 14-year career. Everyone knows their history: beginning as Dave Grohl's studio project (1995's Foo Fighters), becoming modern rock's last bastion of hope (1997's The Colour and the Shape) and slowly growing into a profoundly influential, if increasingly workmanlike, power-pop band (1999's There Is Nothing Left to Lose and thereafter). Their production is reliably flawless, and even their lesser works and critical missteps contain hidden gems, like ...Left to Lose's "Ain't It the Life." Their footprint is obvious on groups like Jimmy Eat World (who open Tuesday) and Alkaline Trio, on down to younger indie upstarts like Brand New, but Grohl and his bandmates have a knack for hook and heart that few followers will ever match. Uninformed and unimaginative types still insist the Foos are indebted to the legacy of Kurt Cobain, revisionist shorthand from folks still absent-­mindedly mourning grunge. Foo Fighters have managed to stay contemporary in a world of unjustly popular glorified karaoke singers, when rock bands are all too often just dudes sitting in front of their TVs holding plastic guitars and pushing multicolored buttons.