How do you follow up a stint drumming for Nirvana, the most influential rock band of your generation? If you’re Dave Grohl, you start one of the most consistent and enduring rock bands of all time. Whether covering Queen and Pink Floyd or collaborating with legends like Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters are the sturdy connective tissue between the classic-rock era and the modern age. After Kurt Cobain died in 1994, Grohl dropped his sticks and became singer-guitarist for a new project he named after a World War II-era military term for UFOs. His scrappy 1995 debut under the Foo Fighters alias—performed and recorded almost entirely on his own—revealed a Cobain-like gift for folding insidious hooks into raw, grungy riffs. But on the more polished 1997 follow-up, The Colour And The Shape, Grohl displayed bigger commercial ambitions, as evidenced by the Pixies-esque “My Hero” and the simmering “Everlong”. The Foos thereupon became a proper band, with Grohl flanked by former Germs and Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear, Sunny Day Real Estate bassist Nate Mendel and the hard-hitting, ever-affable drummer Taylor Hawkins. From the late ’90s onward, the Foos have reigned as alt-rock’s most reliable hit machine and—thanks to their comedic, heavily costumed videos—most eager court jesters, cranking out mosh-pit ragers (“All My Life”), scorching hardcore punk (“White Limo”), jugular-seizing power ballads (“Best of You”) and steady-as-Petty sing-alongs (“Learn to Fly”) with equal aplomb. Hawkins’ sudden death in 2022 cast a pall over the usually happy-go-lucky group. But Grohl channelled his grief into 2023’s emotionally raw But Here We Are—and when the band returned to the road after taking time off to regroup, their music and presence exuded even greater purpose. As one of the few ’90s-era rock bands to maintain festival-headliner status well into the 21st century, the Foos remain alt-rock’s most committed keepers of the flame.