Foo Fighters make it up to Memphis with epic concert at FedExForum

The Foo Fighters' long-awaited, highly-anticipated, once-delayed concert at FedExForum has become something of an in-joke for Memphians.

The show, originally scheduled for last fall, and ultimately postponed until this spring, has been advertised ubiquitously on billboards, TV, radio and in the arena for a seeming eternity. Locals began to crack that the gig had been on the Memphis concert calendar since before rock and roll was invented; that front man Dave Grohl’s mug had appeared in more promos on the Forum JumboTron than Marc Gasol.

The day — or rather, night — of the Foo Fighters return finally came Thursday as the Southern California-based band made it back to the Bluff City. Like their last appearance in Memphis — a fall 2015 Forum date that saw Grohl, hobbled by a broken foot, deliver most of the set from a custom-made throne — the sold-out concert was an enthusiastic celebration of rock and roll populism.

Stopping at the Beale Street venue ostensibly in support of their 2017 album “Concrete and Gold,” the band — led by the always energetic and once again mobile Grohl — screamed, shouted and sweated its way through a marathon set that favored their recent LP, but also touched on most (though not all) of the band’s 20-plus year catalog of hits, while honoring the rock canon with a variety of covers.

Grohl addressed last fall’s postponement, which at the time what was described as being due to an unspecified “family emergency. ”

“There's only one thing I love more than the Foo Fighters and that's my mama. So when my mom gets sick I gotta go home for a bit," he noted of his mother Virginia. "But I came back and I'm glad you came too. She's alright now and so are we...now we got some making up to do to you, Memphis.”

The band — guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and keyboardist Rami Jaffee — were in hard-charging form from the opening salvo of "Run," "All My Life" and "Learn to Fly." Grohl, as usual, pulled out all the stops: working every inch of the stage and crowd, encouraging mass singalongs, even pulling a young audience member up to trade licks on guitar.

Grohl turned the band intros into a comic medley that managed to cram in and mash up songs by John Lennon, Van Halen and the Ramones, among others. Luke Spiller of opening act The Struts then hopped on for a version of the Queen/David Bowie number “Under Pressure” — with Grohl moving to drums and Foos trapsman Hawkins taking over vocals.

By the time Foo Fighters were done — capping with a rousing “Everlong” — the show had clocked in at nearly three hours, and Grohl and company had more than made it up to their fans.