Foo Fighters‘ impending Australian tour is coming at us faster than a Taylor Hawkins drum solo. Dave Grohl and his merry men are renowned for treating their fans to sweaty, high-octane, often marathon rock shows (last time they toured here they played for a whopping three hours, including a monster six-song encore), but another thing that’s always set the Fooies apart from their peers is their consistently quality video clips.
Whether they’re jamming in a hangar, goofing around like overgrown preschoolers, or swanning about in drag (which they, uh, seem do a lot) Foos’ clips are a veritable goldmine of memorable moments.
So to lube you up for their band’s impending Aussie infiltration, here’s some of the most eyeball-popping Foo Fighters video highlights, from across their double-decade-spanning career.
9. The Pretender – More Fun Than Watching Paint Dry
First up, something different. Unlike the vast majority of Foos vids, this one has the band donning their serious faces. It’s a visually powerful clip, featuring the dudes performing inside an aeroplane hangar in front of a crimson backdrop, as a battalion of riot police approaches ominously.
Though it’s dry on the LOLs, the video contains one moment of epic wetness. In a bad-ass finale, the red wall the band are jamming in front of explodes into a tsunami of paint, drenching the band and bringing the throng of troopers crashing to their knees. This one will stick with you for all the right reasons. Watch the video here.
8. Monkey Wrench – ‘Mini Me’
The video for 1995’s stormer Monkey Wrench is just straight-up cool. And we wouldn’t expect anything less, with frontman Dave Grohl stepping into the director’s chair for this one. The clip’s premise is simple: the Foos frontman returns home from grocery shopping to find himself locked out of his apartment by a band of jamming dopplegangers.
But the video’s most memorable bit actually occurs before the song even starts – kicking off with Grohl casually bopping along inside a lift holding his oversized grocery bag, while a jazzy ‘elevator’ version of Big Me toots merrily, and almost imperceptibly, in the background. Guess we cheated a bit. This one you can’t unhear
6. Learn To Fly – Taylor was a Good Girl
The video for Learn To Fly boasts a tonne of wacky highlights, including cameos from Tenacious D‘s Jack Black and Kyle Gass, and Dave Grohl giving an Eddie Murphy-sized turn via various OTT characters of multiple genders, sexes and girths, from a campy flight attendant to a morbidly obese female passenger with a cannibal case of the munchies.
But the most unshakable of them all comes when drummer Taylor Hawkins first appears, dolled up as a sexy stewardess. Unlike Grohl, Hawkins looks pretty convincing in full drag. Watch the video here.
6. Everlong – Bed Transformer
The Michel Gondry-directed clip for Everlong is an unmitigated fan favourite, clocking up a long list of classic moments as Dave Grohl plummets down a nightmarish rabbit hole to battle with Elvis-looking, axe-wielding bandmates and monstrous telephones. An honourable mention must go to Grohl’s fabulous giant hand, which he uses to bitch-slap the thugs threatening his love interest, Taylor Hawkins (in drag, naturally).
But the most eye-rubbing moment comes when Taylor’s bed chucks a full transformer, collapsing away to push the sticksman upright behind a hidden mini-drum kit. His blonde locks fly off cartoonishly, allowing him to jam out the climactic chorus with the band, all while clad in a frilly night gown like a boss. Watch the video here.
5. Big Me – Footos, The Fresh Fighter
If you were born before 1990, chances are you probably remember those cheesy Mentos commercials that used to dominate almost every TV ad break. Foo Fighters’ 1995 clip for Big Me (shot in Sydney, FYI) sets the comic, goofball tone which would come to define many of their future videos, with a thigh-slapping piss-take on the ‘freshmaker’ mint candy.
The crowning moment occurs when Grohl, kitted up as a gawky tracksuit-wearing soccer teen, is given the confidence he needs to take a short-cut through a swanky limousine by ingesting a candy product called ‘Footos’. The limo’s occupant is also creepily cool with the whole thing. Dat face. Watch the video here.
SPOILER ALERT: PROOF FOO FIGHTERS’ AUSTRALIAN TOUR IS GOING TO SMASH
